Skeletons in the Closet
by ViolentRoses
Summary: Muraki is unconscious and about to be possessed by a demon.The shinigami are called upon by his best friend to help.extreme violence,rape and dark themes
1. Chapter 1 To Help A Foe

A new story from Yami No Matsuei.

_I thought to take a different approach of things. basically this story is about. the shinigami making the dicission to. fight a demon who has entered into Muraki's body.finding out who the demon is. they lean a little bit more then what they expected from Muraki's past and if truly he can be saved from the demon within._

_A Tsuzuki/ Muraki fic_

**Skeletions In The Closet**

**1: **To Help A Foe

* * *

Tapping his fingers away on the calculator, Tatsumi looked over his papers. His eyes wide with fright as though it were a death threat he was reading. 

"I have never seen so many zeros in all my life. We will never catch up..."

The secretary pinches the bridge of his nose. He pinches it even harder as the phone rings.

"Hello..."

Tatsumi coughed. "This is Seiichiro Tatsumi, Secretary of the Judgment Bureau.  
Whom may I ask is calling?"

He could hear soft breathing. Then a long sigh.

_"I need your help, Shinigami. That is, if you are willing."_

"Oriya!" The secretary was shocked to hear his voice. He had not heard from him since that unforgettable night in Kyoto. Why was he calling now? Better yet, how did he get this number?

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Tsuzuki threw himself down next to Watari and took a sip of his black coffee. His posture was sluggish. His hands fumbling over his coffee mug.

Watari knew this gesture way too well in the violet-eyed shinigami. Tsuzuki wanted his attention. Something the brunette played well with him.

"Tsuzuki, is there something bothering you?"

The brunette guardian was thrilled to see Watari paying attention to him. Sitting upright he looked at the scientist with sad eyes.

"Hisoka is being mean to me again!" he exclaimed.

Watari rolled his eyes. He had witnessed this a million times already.

"Really, Tsuzuki! What is it this time? Did you come in late again? Not share any of your sweets? No, no wait," the blonde couldn't help but chuckle. "Perhaps it's because you didn't say good morning to him and was just tapping your fingers on the papers that were assigned for you to work on today? No. Wait, wait. This is even better. Instead you were eating your castello cake that you got from the bakery that made you late this morning which caused you to rush into the office not saying hello to him until finally you realized his presence and by then he was already annoyed by you being late and...Hold on. I'm not done yet. You got crumbs from your cake onto the paperwork and from that he called you a baka. You gave him a puppy dog look, only for him to call you a baka even more. Which caused him to walk out throwing his hands in the air saying to himself, 'This is hopeless! I'm working with a idiot!' Right?"

Tsuzuki looked at him speechless.

"Wow, Watari! I never knew you could read minds."

Watari shook his head. "I can't, Tsuzuki. This just happens all the time between you two. It's like deja vu."

Watari put down his newspaper as Tatsumi walked in.

"We're having a meeting."

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Tatsumi sits down in the chair next to Chief Kanoe. The accountant looked troubled.

"Gentlemen, I have called you in here today to say that we have a new case," he began.

"Is it another poor soul refusing to leave the land of the living?" Watari looked ecstatic from the sight of being able to go out and venture the streets for a poor soul to bring back and be judged.

"No, I'm afraid this case is not that simple."

Hisoka sensed the secretary's discomfort.

"Tatsumi, you look disturbed. What's wrong? What is this case about?"

Tatsumi looked over to Tsuzuki. He knew what he was about to say was the last thing any of the Shinigami wanted to hear, but more so it was Tsuzuki that he was most concerned about. Clearing his throat he stood up.

"I receved a phone call today, it was from Oriya."

Watari cocked a eyebrow. "The man who owns the brothel in Kogakuro?"

Hisoka looked at Tatsumi, disturbed as well if not more. "Yes. The man I fought in Kyoto. Muraki's friend."

Tsuzuki was unaware who Oriya was, but when he heard the name Muraki, he could do nothing but shiver. He had thought that Kyoto was in the past. That the events that happened on that day were long forgotten. At least he hoped that they were. He questioned the secretary himself.

"What is it about, Tatsumi?"

The brown-haired man sighed looking at Tsuzuki. He didn't want to bring it up anymore then Tsuzuki already knew. But, too late, the purple-eyed Shinigami answered for him.

"It's about Muraki, isn't it?"

Tsuzuki clenched his fists. _Why now? Why does it have to be him?_ He could still feel the graze of that knife as it embedded in his chest, raking down his skin and seeing pearls of red blood drip down his torso as the cut closed back up again. _Why couldn't those cuts just_ _stay open?_ He remembered stabbing Muraki's side and twisting the knife slowly, so that the doctor could feel just how painful it really was. Then the mad man reach up to him smiling, telling him as the flames of Touda appeared, "_You wish to die with me, Tsuzuki-san? It is_ _truly an honor, my guardian."_

Suddenly, the blonde scientist stood up, breaking the purple-eyed shinigami from his thoughts.

"But I thought he died."

Hisoka opened his shirt to reveal the scars. "No, Watari. He never died."

Watari fell back in his chair, dumbfounded.

"But why? Why am I the last to know?" Watari wondered.

Hisoka shook his head.

"I'm sorry, Watari. But I only told Tsuzuki, no one else knew. I didn't think it would have mattered. From what happened in Kyoto I thought that Muraki would be out of commission. I even hoped that maybe he was dead and that the scars just have not faded yet."

He looked down dejected that his hope was just in vain. "But I was wrong."

Tatsumi pulled his glasses off. "It doesn't matter now anyway. Muraki is alive and needs our help."

Tsuzuki looked at Tatsumi. "What do you mean?"

Tatsumi cleaned the small glass frames and placed them back on.

"Apparently, after the event with you and him in Kyoto, a demon entered his body. What kind of demon, I'm not sure. But it has taken possession of the doctor."

Hisoka interrupted. "The light. The light I've seen envelope Muraki. It must have been that of the demon."

"The light?" Kanoe asked.

"It happened when we were being pulled out of the fire. I could sense another presence but couldn't quite get what it was. Touda was too powerful and there was so many things happening at once. But I saw a light. It was strange because it was there for a moment and then it dissappeared. I tried to see if Muraki was still there but the fire was too strong in that area. I couldn't see anything passed it," the youth replied.

"I see," Tatsumi looked at Watari. "Watari, you are the one who knows more about demons. Can you offer anything on this?"

Watari pulled out his laptop and began tapping at the keys.

"It's pretty hard to say what kind of demon it is without any idea of a description. I need more information. Where is Muraki now?"

"He is in Kogakuro in Oriya's care now," Tatsumi replied.

"You mean..?" Watari pushed the return button. A list of names came up on the screen.

Tatsumi looked around. "Muraki is unconscious. Apparently, this demon has been wanting a piece of Muraki for some time. From what Oriya had told me, Muraki has been able to avoid it until Kyoto."

Tsuzuki put his hands to his lips. The brunette frowned. "That demon must be pretty powerful to possess Muraki. So, as Hisoka said, it must have been when we were in Kyoto. That is when it got a hold of him. Perhaps in that weakened state..."

"Or through a deep wound." Watari turned the computer towards everyone.

A script so tiny and long displayed a demon in the name of _Humatri. The demon of Fear_.

"He is the Demon of Fear. He uses the four senses of emotion to subdue his host," the blonde explained.

"Which are?" Hisoka asked.

"Love, hate, happiness, and sadness. They are the most powerful emotions a human can have and they all can contribute fear within them."

"Is this the demon then?" Tsuzuki wondered.

Watari tapped at the computer displaying more characters. _A shadow a form of many. In no particular case does it have a shape or_ _body._

"I'm not quite sure. There are so many that can enter a body through a wound of a human with a source of light," Watari replied.

Hisoka squinted to try to read the tiny print.

"Then why do you think this is the demon?"

"Because he is the only demon powerful enough to enter an inhuman body even an immortal's."

Kanoe stook up and cleared his throat.

"So then it is settled. All of you go to Kyoto to investigate this case. If Muraki is indeed possessed by a demon, this demon, there is no telling how dangerous he really could get. I want it stopped at any cost."

* * *

Chapter 2: _Most Trusted_

_Well there you have it. first chapter. It looks like the shinigami are in up to their heads on this one. being that the demon is powerful enough to enter Muraki. There is no telling what it will be capable of if it possess his body completely.Next chapter. enters Oriya home sweet home. _

_Please leave reviews and comments.. tell me what you think_


	2. Chapter 2 Most Trusted

_Thanks to everybody who has reviewed so far. As for lemons in this story. There will be one later on .YEY!As in this chapter. Sorry it is a bit short and serious. but I wanted to explain the demon just a little more before the real advanture started. So in saying that please enjoy chapter two of Skeletions in the Closet._

**2: Most Trusted**

* * *

A young women, about in her mid-twenties, answered the door. Her hair was bright red, flowing freely in her face. Eyes of a similar color blinking wide and full. Her clothes where all askew as though she just in the middle of dressing. She fumbled madly for the door handle. 

"May I help you?" She closed her robe tighter around herself.

Tatsumi turned his eyes away, respecting her modesty, however this being a brothel he assumed that they would be that concerned with that particular virture. But he was a gentleman.

Mildly, he responded. "Um, yes. Madam, we are here to see Oriya."

She shifted her eyes slightly at him then smiled seeing the other three Shinigami behind him.

"Oh! You must be the gentlemen he is expecting. Please, do come in."

She lead them to the front room. Waving a hand towards them, she said, "If you gentlemen could please so kindly wait right here. I will go get Mr. Oriya for you," she walked out hurridly leaving the four men.

Tatsumi could see the tenseness in Tsuzuki's slender frame. He could always tell when the brunette felt a bit of uneasy, especially in the way Tsuzuki fiddled with the watch strap on his wrist.

Actually, it was not comfortable for any of the Shinigami. But as Chief Kanoe had said, if Muraki was indeed possessed by this demon, Humatri, then they were in for a serious fight.

* * *

"Ah, what a surprise. All four shinigami to accompany my home tonight"  
Oriya approached them from the rice paper door, calmly puffing from his long pipe. 

"Oriya," Tatsumi glared, narrowing his eyes.

Unperturbed, the brothel owner just smiled. Placing a hand to his chest, he replied, "Who would have thought we would meet again under such circumstances such as this, but if I truly did not need your help I would not of called."

"We are here. So what now?" Watari walked next to the secretary.

"As I have explained on the phone, Tatsumi, Muraki is possessed by a demon," A look of concerned passed Oriya's features.

"And how do you know it is demon that has possessed him?" Tsuzuki lashed out. He already felt a bad vibe from this guy.

He was Muraki's friend after all. I wouldn't put it past him for being a murderer himself, Tsuzuki thought.

Oriya frowned at the brunette.

"Well, well. If it isn't the Shinigami that stole my Katzuaka's heart. And his life," he bit out scornfully.

"You have some nerve!" Tsuzuki spat out.

"I have some nerve!? It is because of you that he is where he is now!" Oriya shouted back.

"Enough! We will get nowhere like this. With all due respect, Oriya, I would like to get to it. Now, where is he?" Tatsumi quickly wanted to get to the task at hand.

Oriya nodded and gave a heated glare toward the purple-eyed Shinigami.

Oriya proceeded to take them to a dark room within the back of the house. It was one of the larger rooms with an open patio to the gardens and a small bed up in the corner. A figure covered in white sheets laid across it.

One by one the Shinigami entered the room. There were no words to express the sorrow sketched upon Oriya face as he looked over toward the bed.

"He's been like this since I found him at my doorstep. The sight of it..." He stopped taking a deep breath.

"His last words before he fell unconscious were, 'It has won.' At first I thought he was talking about one of you, but then as I seen the wound on his side, that is when I knew," Oriya said sadly.

The Shinigami looked at Oriya.

"It glowed. His wound is etched with a symbol of a four pointed star. From my experience of demons, what I do know was that when a demon possesses a body, it leaves its mark on whomever it has claimed as it's host."

Tsuzuki flinched remembering the time he was possesssed by Saagantanasu and the deep mark tattooed on his shoulder. He wondered if Muraki felt that same uncontrollable realization he did when that demon took over his body.

The swordsman focused on Tatsumi.

"He has always told me that he would be consumed by a demon. Just waiting for its turn to have him. I thought he was just stating the obvious. I never knew that there was actually one that wanted his soul."

"But Muraki has always been a man with a firm resolve. Perhaps that is why this particular demon wanted to penetrate him. To break him," Watari chimed in.

Watari pulled out his laptop and placed it on his lap as he sat on the floor.

"What do you mean?" Hisoka sat next to him watching the blonde tap away at the keys.

"According to this, the demon, Humatri, is a master demon, which would rank him as a lord. That would explain why he can penetrate both humans and immortals, but only if the host is in a weakened state, causing a symbol of a four-pointed star to appear on the body. It represents the four emotions of life. Love, hate, sadness, and happiness," the blonde explained.

Oriya nodded. "That would explain the glowing symbol I saw on him. Peering down Watari he asked, "How much power are we looking at with this demon?"

Watari tapped some more at the black keys. The screen popped up with symbols and crypted writing. With a quick flash of his hand, Watari was able to open the script to Japanese and read it.

"His possession is a rarity, being that he is very particular on choosing a host. Wow! He must be very fond of Muraki, then. Anyway, it plays its host with emotions to break them down. All kinds of emotions ranging from recent events to memories of the past. Once the demon reaches that fear, the soul of the person will succumb to him forever. The soul will live in that fear repeatedly, allowing the demon to take over the body completely and all of that person's abilities.

"Why hasn't the demon taken over yet?" Hisoka questioned.

"Because Muraki is fighting it."

Tsuzuki walked over toward the still figure of the pale man. The doctor barely looked alive since his breathing was shallow.

"He looks so helpless," Tsuzuki thought. He could hardly believe that the prone, weakened figure lying there was the same man who had fought them so fiercly in battle, who was so charismatic in his taunts, who held him so possesively in trying to seduce him.

His heart sank as he heard Watari explain what this demon would eventually do to Muraki's soul. Of course, he despised this man for what he had done, but it was this wound that caused the demon to enter into Muraki's body. This wound that he had inflicted on him. Was he truly any better then this man?

Tatsumi looked over to Tsuzuki. He could see the expression on the brunette's face. One of concern and guilt. How dare him think this is his fault! If anybody should be blamed, it was Muraki!

"Muraki is also a very powerful being. Already evil in his ways, it would be a blessing for a demon to possess such cruelty. Unfortunately, if the demon where to get ahold of him completely it would be chaos. So, it is agreed. We will diminish this demon and then send Muraki to Meifu to be sentenced for his crimes"  
Tatsumi coldly stated.

Oriya stared at the Shinigami, outraged. He knew where it came from. Jealously, pure and simple.

"Did you find that Muraki has always been a evil man, Tsuzuki?" The long-haired man turned to look at the young Shinigami. "Since you have had the chance to know him better than the rest, did you find Muraki to be evil?"

Tsuzuki didn't know how to answer that question. Of course, he was, his mind reasoned.  
But why was it that his heart told him it was the wrong answer? He looked down at the pale doctor, so angelic lying there.

"No," he stated softly.

Oriya put his pipe down looking back at Tatsumi. "Then, please, if you are able to stop this demon,  
allow Muraki a peaceful rest in his death."

Tsuzuki looked at Oriya. "What do you mean, if we release him? He will be okay, right?" He looked at Watari.

"Watari?"

Oriya answered for him.

"Despite what you people think Muraki is, there is still a great part of him that is human. The demon has already entered his body. His body has had enough stress from that alone. What more do you think a human can take?"

He looked evenly at them.

"Muraki is dying."

* * *

**Chapter 3:** The Fairest of them All

_Next Chapter into the mind of Muraki..._


	3. Chapter 3 The Fairest of them All : 1

_Thanking everybody again for there reviews and commits on this story.Espeically to those faithful reader of mine, Thank You! On a side note my congratulations goes out to Jollolly for submitting her first story : _

_Enjoy!_

**Chapter 3 : The Fairest of them All**

** part one.**

* * *

The room seemed to have an eerie silence, as the four Shinigami looked over toward Oriya.

Tsuzuki knew he was to blame for this. He couldn't help but shrug. Looking back down at the blonde man, his thoughts raced through his head, trying to deny the obvious.

"_Why would Muraki be dying_?" He had seen this man before him survive countless feats of death. What could a mere demon do?

"What is it we must do to stop this demon, Watari?" Tsuzuki, without thinking,  
touched the pale man's face, brushing aside a strand of hair.

"Well, Tsuzuki, it is a demon of fear which consists of involving emotions. So, without a doubt we would have to enter Muraki's mind subconsciously. That is where the demon is feeding from."

The scientist could see that Tsuzuki wasn't paying him much heed. Noticing the brunette's face sadly looking at the man on the bed.

Trying to reassure Tsuzuki, the scientist stated. "Perhaps it is not too late. But we need to act fast."

"So, then that means one of us has to enter into Muraki's mind. Won't that be dangerous?" Hisoka asked the scientist.

"Of course it will, but what other choice do we really have?" Watari pulled off his glasses. "Now we just need a volunteer."

"I'll do it. I am after all, Muraki's best friend. He would trust me to enter his mind." Oriya responded.

Watari shook his head in disapproval.

"No. It is too risky with you. Oriya, you are a human. That demon would sense that and would simply destroy you."

The scientist looked around the room. His eyes caught onto the young Shinigami next to him.

"Bon, I believe that because of your powerful empathy and the connection you and Muraki had, you should go."

"I-I can't. It just is too uncomfortable." He looked down from the scientist.

Tatsumi encouraged him. "But you are our only hope. You seem to be the only one that is connected to him. You would be able to enter his mind with ease. It has to be done, Hisoka."

Hisoka looked at the secretary in disbelief. He knew why the older Shinigami was so blunt, but it was Muraki he just couldn't come to terms with those memories resurfacing again. "Tatsumi, it is not that simple," he argued.

Tsuzuki didn't want his partner to go. He knew better than any of them that Hisoka would not be able to cope with it. He couldn't lose his only partner.  
Hisoka already suffered enough from this madman.

He knew he would regret it. Though deep down he knew he wanted to do it. There was just something that lingered in his mind about Muraki. That he just needed to be answered.

"I'll go."

Tatsumi looked at Tsuzuki. His face became contorted in anger. "No. Absolutely not. You are the last person that should go."

"Why?" The violet-eyed man asked.

"Because you are a prime candidate for Muraki and this demon. That's why." His anger rose a bit more on reasons of why Tsuzuki would question him. Could he be that dumb not to see it?

But Tsuzuki was still determined. "Which is why I should go. From what happened in Kyoto I am closer. I am more connected to Muraki than any of you." Even though he hated mentioning it, they all knew it was the truth.

"I vouche for that. Even I couldn't convice Muraki to change his mind about this purple-eyed freak," Oriya knew that Tsuzuki was not a freak. He was actually quite beautiful which made the swordsman hate him that much more.

Tatsumi lashed out. "Shut up, Oriya! No one asked you your opinion."

Tatsumi felt like he did when they were back on that unforgettable night. Seeing his ex-partner summon Touda. He knew then Tsuzuki wanted to die. It broke his heart at the sight. He didn't know what to do. What to say. But here, here he was not going to let him go that easily. He was not going to make that mistake again.

"I can't endanger you like this, Tsuzuki."

"But you could Hisoka?" he challenged.

Tatsumi couldn't find a response to this. As much as it pained him, Tsuzuki was right. He could only look away.

"Please, Tatsumi. It is the only way. We have to get to that demon before it is too late. You can plainly see I am probably the only one that can handle that demon. Let me go."

"I don't want to see you hurt anymore." he clenched his fists.

Tsuzuki walks over to him, touching the blue-eyed man on the cheek, shocking the secretary.

The brunette looked into worried eyed and smiled. "Trust me.'

Tatsumi sighed turning toward Hisoka. "Get him prepared."

Hisoka walked over to them, worried himself. Tatsumi touched his shoulder.

"You know how to do this, right?"

Hisoka nods. "I have never physically channeled it through a another person, but it the same."

The young shinigami nervously grabbed ahold of Tsuzuki's hand as Tsuzuki grabbed onto Muraki's. They both knelt down by the bed were Muraki lay.

Hisoka looks over to his partner. "Tsuzuki, be careful."

Tsuzuki just smiled at him graciously.

Hisoka responds. "Close your eyes, Tsuzuki, and listen to what I say."

The violet-eyed Shinigami nodded closing his eyes.

Nervously, the other two shinigami watch as Hisoka chants slowly.

"Your vision is dark. Nothing Your mind blank. Erase everything you're thinking and think only this. Muraki his mind and your mind. One mind together."

Tsuzuki faded into a feeling of light headedness. His breath becomes short and he wheezes. Scared he grabbed tighter to Hisoka which in turn was still saying words he couldn't barely hear anymore. Tsuzuki's body became numb and yet he felt like something was baring a heavy weight upon his chest. He wanted to scream, but nothing came out. Suddenl,y his breath stopped and a flash of white light emitted through the black.

Hisoka pulled away quickly from Tsuzuki's grasp. Falling to the ground, the young shinigami tries to catch his breath. Tatsumi grabbed him. Holding him up for support.

"I had never done that before." He could see Tsuzuki's body go limp and fall onto Muraki's chest. Hisoka becomes worried. "I hope this works."

* * *

Chapter 3 The Fairest of them All: Part two

_Cliffhanger!! _


	4. Chapter 3 The Fairest Of Them All: 2

_I would like to thank Morality and Sueona for being my most faithful readers and reviewers and also Jollyolly for being my beta-er._

Morality: _Chazmy holds sign saying.. The next chapter is here!_

Sueona: _Tsuzuki is trying to save Muraki from the demon, but in the process Tsuzuki finds out more then he intended to know about Muraki. Question is will Tsuzuki find out the answers to his questions.The ones he has been wondering about Muraki sense they first meet HINT: It has to do with Muraki's obsession over Tsuzuki._

Bluehope:_ Thank you for the review Bluehope. I am working on so many stories right now. But I promise to update this story as soon as I can. there is just so much more to it. I even get excited on posting new chapters._

**The Fairest Of Them All**

**Part Two**

* * *

Tsuzuki gasped as he opened his eyes. His body still tingling from what happened. Brightness all around. He rubbed his eyes adjusting them to the light. When they finally come into focus he could see he was in a garden. 

The pungent smell of roses invading his nostrils. A warm breeze blowing across his face.

The shinigami lifted himself up only to be surrounded by scents of roses in every color of red. He rubbed his head still trying to focus everything in. It was a rose garden mesmerizing in its sight. Statues of strange creatures scattered the grounds and a small bench sat in the middle, looking into what seemed to be a small pond. The time must have been fall. There were rose petals falling onto the ground and decorating the pond with many soft petals floating within it. Not too far away was a towering mansion, old in its time, but breathtaking, nonetheless.  
Tsuzuki could only visualize something like this from out of a fairy tale. It was just to perfect to be anything else and part of him felt like a prince as his eyes scouted the large maze of roses and old Victorian house.

"You've come."

Tsuzuki startled, turned around swiftly. He sees a young boy no older than six. Stunned, he froze in place unable to say anything. The boy was beautiful, almost angelic in complexion. His hair was a platinum blonde. Soft silk strands glowing a bright golden hew from the sun and eyes that of a warm gray, also shinning so bright you would believe they were pure silver orbs. His voice was soft and calming, soothing him. The child seemed to be just as unreal as the house and garden, all mixed into a great big fairytale.

"Out of everybody I was hoping it was you who would come, Asato Tsuzuki."

The shinigami came out of his trance on the boy, narrowing his eyes.

"How do you know my name?"

The little boy laughed, skipping over toward the brunette.

"Because you are my guardian angel."

Tsuzuki looked at him more closely. There was something familiar about the boy to him, but he couldn't quite place it. Instead of trying to guess what it was he just responded.

"Guardian angel, huh? Well, then could I ask you your name?"

The boy stood tall, proudly announcing his name.

"I am Katzuaka Muraki."

Purple eyes widened.

"Of course," Tsuzuki understood. "You are Muraki as a child. Then this must be your home."

The guardian was interrupted from the soft sound of the young boy.

"Are you coming?"

"What?"

"Suzu, you don't mind if I call you that do you?" He now sees him as a little angel, because to him that is what the boy looked like. A tiny little angel. He was picking a rose from off the bush. Young Muraki handed it to Tsuzuki. "Do you?"

The brunette gladly accepted the rose, smiling at the young child. He leans down to meet eye to eye with young Muraki.

"No, of course not. Where are we going?"

Young Muraki smiles back pleased that his guardian accepted the rose from him.

"I am to be your guide."

"Guide?" Tsuzuki asked confused.

"Yes, you want to know, don't you? You want to know about me?" He questioned the shinigami.

"Yes. Of course I do."

The child grabbed Tsuzuki's hand as the shinigami lifted himself up.

"Well Suzu, I'm going to show you then."

A door appeared before them. A pure white door, suspended in air right in front of them.

Young Muraki pulled his hand toward the door.

"You must open it, Suzu."

Hesitating, Tsuzuki pulled back. "Wait."

Young Muraki turned toward him with questioning eyes.

"Do you have a mother, Suzu?"

Why was he asking him this question? What did he mean by it. It really was none of the kid's business. But somehow he felt he had to answer him. Besides, what was Muraki's motive in all this? Why was he talking to a younger Muraki, a child Muraki? He had to know. He had too many unanswered questions and he knew this was probably the only way he was going to find some of them, into what he believed was Muraki's past.

He turned away from the child. Not wanting him to see his hurt at the question he was asked.

"I used to have a mother but she -- she died."

The angel turned the guardian's head back to him.

"I'm sorry. It must be sad not to have one."

Tsuzuki nods at the sincerity of the boy giving a faint smile then twisted the knob on the door. Once opened it revealed only white.

"Yeah, it is." he said in barely a whisper.

The young boy chuckled pulling Tsuzuki with him

"Come, Suzu. Don't be sad. I would like you to meet my mother."

They walked in.

_A Light enveloped them causing Tsuzuki to feel a little dizzy then it slowly faded to black, focusing a picture into sight. The room was dark only lit by a small table lamp on either side of the room. Surrounding every wall was selves of porcelain dolls. Some encased in glass, while others decorated tables and the floor. A little boy was opening one of the glass shelves. His features so flawless Tsuzuki could hardly tell if he was real or one of the dolls himself. The young boy gently pulled out one of the delicate dolls. The doll's hair was blonde and in tight curls hanging from out of her bonette, which was the same color as her dress. A velvet navy blue._

_"Kazu?"_

_The little boy dropped the doll on the floor in surprise as he turned shamefully toward the woman entering the door._

_"Now, what have I told you about being in this room, Kazu?"_

_The woman looked to be no older then in her late twenties. She had hair the color of raven, wrapped up into a bun. The complexion of her skin was of pale cream and eyes of a dark blue. She was quite attractive. Fitting perfectly in a long gown of forest green suede. Tight around the waist and loosely flowing at the bottom. From her demeanor she seemed to come from high society, so she was definitely not a babysitter or maid of some sort. That only led Tsuzuki to one other conclusion. Muraki's mother._

_"I -- I'm sorry. It's just -- " The little boy hurried and grabbed the doll from the floor, as he watched the woman place her hands against her hips._

_"I'm sorry, Mother. He threw his head down._

_The young lady walked over to him, kneeling down and raised the boy's chin up to face her._

_"Mother, she is not broken. I swore I didn't break her!"_

_His silver eyes welded up with tears causing them to shine slightly from the lamps' light._

_The woman just smiled, rubbing her hand through the blonde strands of hair on the boy's head. "You admire these dolls, don't you?"_

_The boy nodded._

_"But don't you understand, Kazu? You are more perfect, more beautiful than any of them. My little perfect Kazu. Like a gift from the gods."_

_She grabbed the doll from out of his hands._

_"You seem to like this one the most. Why is that?"_

_The young boy looked down at the doll in his mother's hand admiring the crack along her face._

_"Because she is broken and I can see that she is flawed. I can fix her and still she will be as beautiful as the day she was made."_

_The woman rubbed her finger down the crack on the doll's face._

_"This doll has seen many homes. She was given to me by your grandmother."_

_She pulled her son's chin up to meet her eyes_

_"Kazu, I am giving it to you. Her name is Veronica. Please do take good care of her. Take care of her as though she were a jewel."_

_"She is beautiful. Even with her flaws she is."_

_She kissed him on the forehead._

_"Just as you are my son, so beautiful. Just like these jewels before you, Kazu. You are beyond them. You are my most prized treasure. A jewel that could never compare."_

_She paused before getting serious._

_"Kazu." She looked back at him. "Do not ever let yourself be broken like some of these dolls are. Understand? Your eyes might be different from others, but they are yours. The most beautiful eyes anyone could lay sight to."_

_She rubbed her hand through his hair._

_"I -- I won't,Mother. I promise."_

Young Muraki looked over toward Tsuzuki as the shinigami viewed the scene before him.

"Mother used to collect these dolls and display them in this room. I was always fond of them because she would always say I was like them in many ways." He goes over touching one of the dolls on a cherry wood finished table.

"There very fragile."

One of the dolls falls down braking into pieces onto the floor, her face completely shattered. One single eye rolls in front of Tsuzuki's foot. The color of grey. He picks it up looking at the glass ball. He hears the echoing sound of young Muraki's voice.

"You and I we are the same."

The room turns complete black, fading into a long hallway filled with doors. He noticed he was standing back turned against a similar white door. The door from before. He felt a nugde on his side and looked down. Young Muraki walked passed him only to turn around smiling. He was holding the doll his mother gave him in his hand.

Tsuzuki couldn't understand. The boy in the room was a younger Muraki than the one he seen at the garden. The same one he is seeing now. Well, the child did say he was his guide. Was this Muraki taking him through his past and what was that about we are the same? What does it mean? The shinigami started getting a headache. Nothing made sense. What was the point of showing him that part of his past?

Tsuzuki was shortly interrupted.

"Soon, Suzu, you will have your answers. It is always confusing in the beginning."

"What -- how did you know"  
The blonde-haired child walked up to Tsuzuki.

"You have such amazing eyes. Unlike anyone else's. They are very beautiful, you know. But so they are beautiful they also are very tainted."

Tsuzuki looks sadly upon him. Yes, they were very tainted and he had dreadful memories to prove it.

The little boy rubbed his hand over one of Tsuzuki's eyelids causing the guardian to close his eyes.

"Muraki's eyes were also tainted. But as you ran he stood his ground. He very much believed what his mother said about being a very special gift from God. But words can be deceiving."

Tsuzuki quickly opened his eyes seeing Muraki up against another door resting only a few feet away to his right.

Muraki, with a child-like innocence, held out his hand for Tsuzuki to grab.

"Shall we continue?"

Tsuzuki got up, still a bit confused. He didn't know if he was being led into a trap or what. But something kept telling him to move forward. If indeed this child-like Muraki was a guide for him into Muraki's past, he was interested in learning more.

He grabbed the child's hand placing the glass eye in his pocket.

* * *

Chapter Four: _Bully Me Part Two_

_Ok for anybody that is confused I am puting the past events in Italic. i hope you enjoyed this chapter.Tell what you think??!!_


	5. Chapter 4 Bully Me : 1

_In this chapter though very short. goes back to the normal world. Hard core feelings are revealed and a pacing Tatsumi.Don't you just love seeing Tatsumi so stressed! Such a worry case._

_anyway enjoy and leave reviews. anything!!_Crawls in front of computer screen hands crossed._" PLEASE!!"_

**Chapter Four : Bully Me**

**Part One

* * *

**

Tatsumi stared at the two figures. One lying peacefully like Snow White waiting to be awoken and the other slumped down to the ground with his head lazily against the snow white man's chest. The scene was undoubtedly alluring as they looked like two lovers at the hand of death's canvas, Romeo and Juliet. Tatsumi sees Tsuzuki's hand entwined with the white angel's. Yes, like Romeo and Juilet. That's what made it disturbing.

Tatsumi wanted to move Tsuzuki to a better position, away from Muraki but Hisoka said it might disturb the connection between them and that it was best if they were left alone. Tatsumi began to regret his decision. He had asked Hisoka before if Tsuzuki was all right. Hisoka was questioning that himself. As he had stated he had never done this before. Then he could feel Tsuzuki's presence within his mind. Proof to Hisoka that Tsuzuki was indeed okay and that it had worked. All of them were relieved. Except Tatsumi, of course, he still didn't trust the situation.

"How will we know if Tsuzuki finds this demon or even if he might need our help, Hisoka?" A worried Tatsumi paced the room.

"I really can't answer that, Tatsumi-san. I can only feel his life essence but I can't get into either his or Muraki's mind."

"What do you mean? If Tsuzuki is in trouble there is no way we would know?!" Tatsumi stopped dead in his tracks looking over to the younger shinigami.

"I'm sure Tsuzuki knows what he is doing Tatsumi, he is one of the most powerful shinigam," Watari reassures Tatsumi.

"Besides if I feel a change in his life essence, I will break the contact. Tatsumi, I don't want to see Tsuzuki hurt any more then you do. He is my partner. I would soon enough see Muraki dead if that were the case but it isn't so this is our only option," Hisoka stated calmly, adding his two cents.

Encouraging words from the kid no doubt. Hisoka was also the one to break Tatsumi bearer in Kyoto. Something the secretary had questioned about in saving Tsuzuki's life. The kid jumped at it. That is what he admired about Hisoka. His pure emotional heart for his partner. His selfish desire to keep Tsuzuki around. But Tatsumi was not selfish. Well, not selfish with anything besides money. He was always a man that had given Tsuzuki his choice. Even as partners in the past, Tatsumi could not have been that anchor in which Tsuzuki needed. Tatsumi hated himself for that and quit being the violet-eyed man's partner because of it.

Even though on certain days Tsuzuki still runs to his shoulder to cry on, Tatsumi couldn't help but be caring. But nothing more. No doubt in Tatsumi's mind he wanted more. He knew he loved Tsuzuki, there was no denying that, but Tsuzuki was too naive to notice. Or maybe he does see it and just doesn't act upon it. Either way he regrets not acting on it sooner in telling the brunette his true feelings. But wouldn't that make him look like the weak one? Maybe it is best if he didn't know. It would save on heartache later on.

"Man, am I hungry," the blonde scientist peeked up from his computer.

"Me, too," Hisoka rubbed his stomach for emphasis.

"There is some food in the dining area. Just tell them I had sent you down. Get whatever you wish," Oriya sat down in one of the chairs outside on the balcony.

"You sure are being nice," Watari stood up fixing his hair back into a red ribbon.

"I am a only accommodating my guests. After all, you are helping me and I can't have you working on an empty stomach now, can I?" Oriya gave a slight smile towards the blonde.

"Watari blushed flinging his hair back. "Of course not. Thank you."

He and Hisoka both walked out the door.

Tatsumi walked outside sitting next to Oriya, breathing in the night air

"You look worried, Shinigami."

"Why would you say that?" Tatsumi looked over towards the man, still looking at the clouded sky.

"I can see it in your face, your tone, your body language. It not easily hidden," Oriya retorted. "You feel something for that freak, don't you?" Oyira turned his face toward a shocked Tatsumi.

"He is not a freak!" Tatsumi gritted out, although, he wanted to tell Oyira yes. Wanted to say something besides that.

Oriya smirked. "We both are in the same boat, Tatsumi-san."

Oriya sighs." Muraki once asked me. Would you cry for me just once if I died. Would you?" The swordsman then takes a puff of smoke.

" I didn't say anything. My heart wouldn't let me. Oddly as it sounds I believed he knew I wouldn't either.  
You know Tatsumi if I didn't feel the way I do about him. I would of never helped him when he caused all those murders. If I didn't love him I would of never gave your friend that key card. To be honest I was jealous of that freak and it made me hate Muraki for it .though my heart could never come to hating him like my mind did. So to answer his question……I did weep for him. I still do."

Tatsumi was taken aback by Oyira confession ." so you love him."

Oriya smiled at the thought." Ofcourse. Just as you love Tsuzuki.I understand that your hate for Muraki isn't only because of what he has done and caused to that violet eyed freak. But because I think you just might see that in that freak there is a part that might have feelings for Muraki aswell.".

* * *

Chapter Four : Bully Me part Two

_Next part more Tsuzuki and young Muraki..._


	6. Chapter 4 Bully Me : 2

_This chapter more Tsuzuki and Muraki and more of Muraki's past revealed._

**Note:**_ This story is not an orignal. The events have come from my own mind and my own opinons on Muraki's past.I am also sorry that there is no lemons. but The story will have one later on in the chapters.promise! _

The story so far...

_Tatsumi recieved a call from an unexpected caller, Oriya.They find that Muraki has been possessed by a demon called __Humatri. The demon of Fear.Which invades the body using it's hosts emotions to weaken them and posses them fully._

_They go to Kyoto to see Oryia and the unconscious doctor . Whom the guardians agreed to help destroy the demon inside him. Only because of the dangers it could cause if Muraki is completely possesed by it. The only thing is that in order to get to the demon. Someone had to enter into the doctors mind.Out of disappoval from Tatsumi Tsuzuki slowly convinces the shadow master that he should go.Tatsumi finally agrees. Tsuzuki becames the subject and was sent through Hisoka's empathy into Muraki's mind._

_There Tsuzuki meet up with a younger Muraki who had told the shinigami that he was going to be his guide.That he was going to show Tsuzuki his past. A child Muraki is confronted with his mother and her doll collection. She tells her son that none of the dolls could ever compare to his beauty and gives the young child one of her oldest collection dolls Veronica._

_Meanwhile back in the real world. A nerves Tatsumi paces the floor.Worried about Tsuzuki his friends tell him it is ok.Both Hisoka and Watari then go to get something to eat.With Oriya s appoval ofcourse.Tatsumi sits outside next to Oriya trying to relax but becomes even more strained as Oriya reveals his feeling for the doctor to the shadow master and then explots Tatsumi on revealing the secretaries own feelings on his ex-partner.Oriya knowing he hit a very deep spot with the secretary also reveals that there is more then one reason he didn't want Tsuzuki to go into Muraki's mind.Having to do with Tsuzuki s own hidden feelings for the doctor... _

**Bully Me**

**Part Two**

* * *

_The building was three stories high, covered in red brick and panel windows. Another mansion, yet this one had a bell tower. The yard was filled with sakura trees otherwise known as cherry blossoms. The white petals were falling to the ground covering up the bulk of the cobble stone path leading to the entrance. _

_There were kids all round a large courtyard and they were all dressed in the same uniform. Blue jackets with white collar shirts. Their slacks also matched their jackets._

_Tsuzuki scanned the area walking through the courtyard passing the children as they jumped, laughed, and ran through him as if he was a ghost. He came to realize that from the little logo on the kids jacket that he was at a private school._

_Young Muraki passed him holding Veronica at his side. The tiny angel skipped in the crowd of children. He twirled around looking at the guardian._

"Mother always said I was smart enough to be in Japan's most elite private school, where only the most gifted children go."

_Sadly the blonde child looked down. Veronica hanging from one arm._

"But I don't see anything elite about it. Especially when you're the only one that was different."

_Tsuzuki observed the younger Muraki looking over at a bench closer to the building._

_On that bench sat a young boy nose deep within a book. He seemed to be very interested in whatever it was he was reading. So much so that not even the children around him distracted him from the leather-bound book._

_On closer observation, Tsuzuki found the boy to have platinum hair. He noticed the boy was sitting by himself. This told Tsuzuki that the child must not have had any friends, but the book seemed to be good enough company for him. Soon The shinigami's stare on the boy was interrupted as the book flew from the child's hand. The unruffled child looked up giving the aggressor a stare with his pure silver orbs. A stare that looked all too familiar to Tsuzuki. Yet, these eyes still had a warmth about them. An annoyed, innocent stare rather than one of hatred._

_"A freak like you shouldn't be here," A much larger boy demanded the smaller one as he towered over him. The boy had a shock of red hair and looked to be much stockier than most of the other boys in the courtyard. His eyes were a dark blue which harbored a cold, mean glare._

_Though the larger boy was very intimidating this didn't seem to phase the much more smaller pale boy who Tsuzuki now realized was Muraki._

_"Well, at least I was enrolled here because they did find that I was above average on my scores, unlike you, Huikai, who came in riding his daddy's paycheck."_

_The much larger boy laughed. A mocking laugh that gave Tsuzuki chills. More children gather around the two._

_"Face it, freak! Look at you! Only a devil's child would have pale skin and grey eyes like yours. Your not even human," The bully named Huikia snorted back._

_"That's not true. I..." The small pale boy knew he was different than the rest of the kids and he was now saying those words more for himself to believe than at Huikia._

_"Your mother is a whore who slept with the devil and conceived a demon child!" Huikia contuined his insults. "That is why you don't even have a father!"_

_Muraki looked at the other boy. His eyes narrowing as anger rose in his voice. It was true he didn't have a father. But it wasn't because he was the devil it was because he was on leave all the time. He was a doctor._

_"You take that back!" he growled._

_Huikia just laughed at him._

_"I said take it back, Huikia!" Muraki snapped._

_The larger boy knowing he hit a nerve, laughed even more._

_"Make me!"_

_Muraki threw the larger man onto the ground. Straddling the larger boy Muraki started punching him in the face with all his might._

_The other children all just stared in fright. How could a much smaller kid overpower the biggest kid in school?_

_"He must be a demon. Look at him!" a kid tells another child in the crowd._

_"Somebody help! The demon is going to kill, Huikia!" one of the other children shout._

"I didn't care if I killed the boy at that time. I just wanted him to shut up Stop saying such lies about me. I never did anything to him. To any of them! All I wanted to know was why." Tsuzuki heard young Muraki's voice as he watched the scene in front of him'.

_Blood stained the blondes hair as he just couldn't stop. It was like his hands had a mind of their own._

_"I'm not the devil's child! I'm not!" His fist was caught and he was aggressively pulled off the larger kid who was now crying and shaking._

"I was taken out of school and had to start home schooling. I didn't mind it, though. It was better this way. To be alone."

_All the kids disappear from the courtyard leaving only Muraki and his mother walking up to him_.

_"Kazutaka! What the hell were you thinking? Look at you! Just look!"_

_She shook him as Muraki was not paying attention. She shook him harder as tears started to well up in his eyes. He looked at her._

_"They called you a whore, Mother. They said that you slept with the devil. And that I am the devil's child. Is it true, Mother? I've never seen my father. I don't even look like you. No one has eyes or skin as pale as mine. Mother, am I the devil's child?" He stared blankly at her._

_"I..I really hurt that boy, Mother. I didn't mean to, but he said such things. I just wanted him to shut up. I'm sorry. So sorry. I wanted him to stop saying those things about you, about me. But he just wouldn't! Mother, am I a demon?" He was sobbing furiously now._

_"Am I?"_

_She fell to her knees pulling him. Her eyes water as well._

_"No, Katzuaka! You're not a demon! You are an angel. No one has eyes or skin like yours because you are an angel. Didn't I tell you that? That you were a gift from God? My gift."_

_"_So, Muraki had a tortured childhood, too. All because he was different." Tsuzuki thought wildly.  
"But unlike me he vented out his fear and almost killed that boy."

Young Muraki skipped in the now empty courtyard and picked up a handful of sakura petals, throwing them in the air. The sight was truly beautiful as the petals matched his skin perfectly.

"You couldn't get away from it could you, Suzu? I mean the kids. When you ran they caught up with you and hurt you, didn't they? Kids can be so cruel, Suzu. But me and you, we are not evil. We are fallen angels. And you, Suzu, you are my guardian angel."

"There he goes with that me being his guardian angel again. Why did he have to bring up my past and why does he keep calling me that? Damn it, Muraki! Why do things always have to be so scripted with you?"

The blonde child just smiled and grabbed the brunette's hand, pulling him into the falling petals.

**My protection**

**My scar**

**When things go bad**

**There you are**

He grabbed the guardian's other hand and unknowingly Tsuzuki finds himself swinging in circles with the young angel.

**I close my eyes**

**And see your face**

**To block out those nightmares**

**To a imaginary place.**

Tsuzuki felt like a kid again swinging and laughing with the young child before him. He could see the laughter coming from the angel and thought.

"Could this really be Muraki? So full of life and happiness? What changed you? Was it those kids or was it something different? Why do I feel so close to you, yet so very far away? Muraki, what is it about you that has drawn me in?"

**You will protect me**

**My guardian angel**

**You will heal my wounds**

**Scare away the shadows...**

The child abruptly stopped looking seriously at the shinigami.

In a low whispering voice, Tsuzuki could barely hear it.

**"And him."**

Tsuzuki looked at the serious boy as he pulled a petal out of his hair. Tsuzuki at that moment seen a slight glimmer of the Muraki he was to become. The older, more calmer man Tsuzuki had known him to be.

"What do you mean?"

But before he could finish they were back in the hallway of doors.

* * *

Chapter Five: _The Perfect Picture :Part one_


	7. Chapter 5 Perfect Picture : 1

_I wanted to add every character to this story and give them a part.As most of my stories are Tsuzuki Muraki related. this story deals with them in a completely different way.Hey even though Tsuzuki and Muraki are my favorite charaters. I still have to give it to the rest of the characters in this story. They are just as inportant...right??_

**Chapter five: The Perfect Picture**

**Part One

* * *

**

Most of the dining area was empty but for the small young woman caring out two trays filled with traditional Japanese food. She bowed at the young gentlemen and placed a tray before each of them.  
The tray was filled with dishes of ramen and bean curd sauce, also a seaweed veggie roll dipped in wasabe sauce. Both shinigamis' mouths watered at the a delightful dishes.

Watari, thinking how Tsuzuki would have enjoyed this, knowing the brunette's cravings for food. He tasted a bit of the seaweed roll and sighed. It was worth the tormenting walk to this destination.

Watari could only cover his ears tightly as he walked the explicit sounding halls. Each room with its own distinctive sound that made the man's hair stand on end. But what do you expect from a restaurant-turned-whorehouse during these hours of the night?

The scientist noticed Hisoka just playing in his food.

"Such a quick change. At first he was all tempting and drooling like me over this food, but now he picks at it," the blonde noticed the green-eyed shinigami with one of his hands resting sluggishly on his cheek. Something was bothering him.

"Hisoka, why the long face?" The scientist still chewing as he shoveled more food into his mouth.

"I don't know, Watari. It's just...it has been bothering me and I didn't want to say anything before especially with Tatsumi there. But when I was connecting Tsuzuki with my empathy to Muraki I felt something strange. It happened before I released Tsuzuki's hand."

He moved his hand from his cheek looking down now into the food before him.

"What do you mean?" The blonde asked as noodles hung from his mouth.

"That's just it, Watari. I don't know I mean. I tried to enter my body into Muraki's mind with Tsuzuki," The boy abruptly stopped talking looking over at the older shinigami. His eyes wide as the words slipped his mouth.

Watari looked at him with confusion etched his face.

"Why would you do that? After all, that was said and you being so uncomfortable with it."

Hisoka looked away from Watari playing with his food again. Feeling the staring eyes on him uncomfortable.

"Because I felt something. Something even more darker then Muraki in the mist of that transfer. And it laughed. But not no ordinary laugh. This laugh was deep and dark. It made my heart drop."

Again the young shinigami looked into the amber eyes across from him staring with concern.

"Watari, had I just put Tsuzuki into a trap?" He looked for an answer but finds himself talking more.

"I wanted to stay knowing now that whatever this was or whatever Tsuzuki is going to face," Hisoka chokes out his words. "He would not be able to face it alone. If Muraki dose become completely possessed, Tsuzuki will be in his world and...and I think the demon knows this. Tsuzuki won't have a chance. He can't call on his shikigami."

The empathy words were cut short.

"But the force of that transfer made you fall back, Hisoka. Naturally, it caused your body to react and to get away. The same way a burning fire would cause someone to recoil back. That was probably the darkness you felt. It was your first try," Watari reassured him.

"No! Watari, it wasn't that! I fell back to get away from the contact. I was pushed. Now I can't even get into Tsuzuki's mind, neither one of them."

Watari's eyes widened at this new information.

"What are you trying to say, Bon?"

"That the demon wants Tsuzuki."

Now Watari starts to play with his food. Tapping lightly at the noodles with his chopstick.

"But, why, when it is after Muraki? Oriya said this demon had wanted Muraki for a long time. It was just the demon couldn't get to him. Muraki was to strong."

Hisoka placed a hand to his forehead trying to stop a headache from coming.

"Muraki is still fighting this demon even in his weakened state. The demon still can't get to him fully."

Watari threw his chopsticks down.

"Unless the demon uses something against Muraki. Something very important to him. Something to cause the doctor to give in."

"Tsuzuki!" They both look at each other.

Watari smirked in spite of their seriousness.

"That can't be. Tsuzuki can't be that important to Muraki. He was just a pawn in Muraki's plan. I think we are overreacting a little here. I mean, come on! Tsuzuki is the most powerful shinigami in all Meifu! What's to say he can't handle a mere demon?"

"But you said it yourself, Watari. This demon was pretty powerful."

"True, true. But I still think we are overreacting Hisoka. Besides you said you could pull them apart if things got bad, right?"

Hisoka looked down shamefully.

"Not really. I only said that to calm Tatsumi. I mean, I didn't want to worry him."

"What!?" Watari was taken aback.

Hisoka sighed.

"If Tatsumi knew any of this he would pull Tsuzuki out of the trance and it could not only break the connection but could quite possibly destroy both Muraki's and Tsuzuki's mind."

Hisoka could now see panic in the scientist's eyes.

* * *

**Chapter five:** Perfect Picture Part Two 

_Sorry to anyone who thought this chapter was boring, but I had to get a little more information out there. This chapter had to fit into the story and I'm glad it is over with. Now for more Tsuzuki and Muraki..._


	8. Chapter 5 Perfect Picture : 2

_More and More into Muraki's past..._

_Agaain sorry for the long delay This chapter was hard to come by. my brain was racked with it for weeks..and finally boom! there it was._

**Chapter Five: The Perfect Picture**

**Part Two**

* * *

_It is never a fair choice when it comes to making decisions._

_But I believe the decision I made was one I would hold to my heart forever._

Tsuzuki looked at the young child as he walked to a small closed door. Within a large corridor decorated with draped windows and paintings on each wall dividing the doors, there was at least six doors along the stretch of Victorian-rugged pathway. But the blonde angel seemed to choose this particular one.

The door swung open and Tsuzuki fell into shock. Everything in the room was foreign to him but one thing. The one thing that stood out most in the small living space. The window. It was no doubt the same window he looked out of in those terrible eight years of his life. There was no longer a bed in the room but a large oak wood desk and lots of bookselves filling the walls with books.

Tsuzuki mouth went dry. This was the actual room he died in. He didn't want to enter. Fearfully, he thought he might just end up back in that spot of his life. Lost of most his memory of that time but the overwhelming pain to just die. No one, he thought, would understand the urge more then he did. Except perhaps Muraki. In a split second in Toudra's flames, he could see that urge in the doctor. The glint in the man's eye when the blade went through his skin. The smile upon his face as he touched my cheek that one last time before he fell to the ground. What did it mean? Did he want to die? He called me his guardian then.

The brunette's thoughts were shortly broken as he felt his hand being touched and a small body brush pass him.

"You don't have to be afraid. It is just my grandfather's office," the little angel then went and sat in the chair by the desk.

"Mother said our house was once a hospital for the sick. Grandfather would take people in from time to time and tend their wounds. He used to tell me the stories of people coming in for a cure to thier sickness. Even when they had the spread of a deadly disease my grandfather would take the sick in."

"But there was one person in particular that my grandfather had talked about that caught my interest. He said the man reminded him of me. That he had such captivating purple eyes. He would tell me how the man was very special, but he wouldn't tell me anything further than that. I felt a deep emptiness," Muraki twined his fingers together looking down sadly at the ground.

"I wanted to know but he only told me that it didn't matter anyway. That the man had been dead for years," The child-like Muraki looked back up at Tsuzuki still standing wordlessly in the door way.

"Those words shattered my heart. For some reason, I felt close to this man. He told me about just to tell me he was no longer around. That was the last time grandfather mentioned him."

The child got up from the chair and walked over toward the stilled Shinigami. Still not paying much heed to the Guardian's tense gaze toward the room and stiff posture.

"My grandfather died not long after that. I forgot about the stories, but that one in particular couldn't leave my mind. I wanted to see if my grandfather was telling me the truth about the man with the purple eyes. If, indeed, the man was as beautiful as grandfather had said."

Muraki pulled Tsuzuki out of his stiffness, looking up at the Shinigami then hugged him.

"I'm sorry, Suzu. I know this room makes you a bit uneasy. But as it once was a place of sorrow it also was a place of discovery."

The child let go of the guardian and headed back to the desk opening up the drawer. He pulled out a small envelope and contuined his story.

"Mother said I was born in my grandfather's hospital before it was changed into the guest rooms, but when I looked through the files there was nothing on me. Grandfather seemed to have it pretty organized. Files of every patient, but none of my birth which was silly if you think about it. I guess to wonder about things like that wasn't very important. Besides, I wasn't in his files looking for information on that."

He opened the envelope pulling out a picture.

"In this room I came across a locked box very thin in weight. The lock on it seemed to be broken and I easily removed it. A folder in parchment paper, which I realized from the date 1927, it was pretty old. I opened the folder. It was what I saw in that folder, Suzu, that changed my life."

The white angel turned the picture around toward Tsuzuki. Like looking into a mirror image of himself. The guardian gasped.

You captivated my soul Bewitched my every thought Took me into your world

"The most beautiful human. No, wait. Let me correct that. Not human. No human could compare to what I was looking at. What I was looking at was an angel. He was just too pretty to be anything else. In fact, this angel was the most stunning I had ever seen. I was just drawn to him especially to those eyes."

_**"You were..."**_

Muraki turned the picture back towards him. Rubbing the paper-thin image with his finger.

"I called you my guardian angel because I understood what my grandfather meant when he told me that I reminded him of you. Like me, you were different. Your eyes were an unnatural color. And it made my heart skip at the sight."

The child never left his eyes off the picture as he continued to talk to the shinigami.

"I had truly fallen. But sadly I could see pain in those eyes as well the hurt. They treated you bad and made you do that harmful thing to your eyes."

The silver angel looks up sincerely at the older man.

"Why? Why would you hurt yourself? What has brought you to this point? You are so beautiful and just looking at you...you made me feel complete. My guardian angel."

_**Fragile like a rose…..**_

Tsuzuki walked past the little child towards the window. He touched the glass. The cool surface at his fingertips.

Muraki I am no guardian angel. I couldn't even save myself."

**_You were..._**

Muraki touched his hand .

"No, Suzu. You and me we are very much alike. When I see your face I could feel in those beautiful eyes of yours the sadness. Was it because you were hurt so bad? The color of your eyes is what caused those people to hurt you, wasn't it? Suzu, they could never understand true beauty. You are my angel. I have never thought of anything less."

A worried look etched the young boy's face.

_**So sad...**_

Tsuzuki hands clenched against the window. This child was so like Muraki. His words and manner. But with so much innocence. He just wanted to shake the boy silly. No. That's not what he wanted to do to the boy really. The tiny angel confused him. This isn't Muraki, but it is. It made Tsuzuki angry. A wrecking ball in the pit of his stomach. How could such a sweet, innocent child turn so cold-hearted? What caused your change Muraki? What has made you mad with death when you speak so hopeful about life here and now?

"How can you feel so confident about your words, Muraki?"

_**So angry...**_

"Because that is all I can do. I promised myself that day I would see you again. Even if only in my dreams. You would soon enough save me from myself, Suzu. Because you were truly the only one that I believed would understand."

_**So lost...**_

"While you try to hide your differences I fought to accept it. Because I am who I am. But from all the weaknesses I seen I also see strength. Your face in that picture became more precious to me then the doll my mother had given to me. And in all honestly, Suzu you had become my first love."

_**So beautiful...**_

Tsuzuki blushed at the comment. Scanning the rose garden he had seen when he first entered into Muraki's mind. The guardians sighed.

"It is only an obsession."

_**Loved...**_

The child responded back calmly.

"Yes. Love is an obsession. But it is an honest and pure obsession. The most deadly obsession known."

Again with that child-like innocence! So much like Muraki response! Tsuzuki's anger finally got the best of him as he spat out.

"Muraki is not capable of love! His only obsession with me was to play with my mind and use me for his little game. Why?"

_**You will tell me it's okay **_

_**Just by looking into your eyes **_

_**I will give in to my fears **_

_**And tear away the lies**_

"You are still very naive, Suzu. But soon you will see it for yourself."

The guardian noticed the young angel walking out the door.

Tsuzuki stopped the child abruptly kneeling down to his level.

"See what?!"

The small child just smiled touching the Shinigami's cheek .

"The truth."

_**But somehow You were still to late...

* * *

**_

**Chapter Six:** Open Closets Part One

_Little muraki is so cute and sweet. I just want to hug him and squeeze him to death.. ok maybe not to death but at least until he can't breath...maybe._


	9. Chapter 6 Open Closets : 1

_Tatsumi and Oryia_

**Open Closets**

**Part One**

* * *

Oriya's relief to leave the intense conversation him and Tatsumi had was far from a breath of fresh air. 

Confessing his love to the shadow master about Muraki was something he surely didn't want the man to know. He could still visualize his best friend's weakness as he opened that door. The look in Muraki's eyes was enough to push him over the edge with fear. But the thing that hurt more than that was the fact that he couldn't do anything to help him. No. He couldn't even be the one to enter his mind.

Why should that freak get to? he thought. I know more about Muraki than any of them. Sadly, he bent his head down sighing.

"But he doesn't have those feelings for me like I do for him. His heart belongs to someone else. Damn him for being so determined! That freak doesn't even feel anything for him, let alone ever will. Why would you allow this to happen, Muraki? You let your...oh, it doesn't even matter. You have always acted on whatever it was you wanted, death was never an exception for you. Not even then."

I remember when you had first came to me about that demon. You were scared out of your wits. Though knowing you didn't show it I still could see it in your eyes. I asked you what happened you told me the demon wanted to make a deal with you. And you refused him. Impatient on an answer I asked, Well, what happened!?

His response nothing. I've known Muraki to dabble in the art of black magic but never to have a demon want to possess him. What was it that Muraki had that that demon wanted?

"Well, you got him, you bastard! What now?"

* * *

Shallowly breathing, Tatsumi waved a hand near Muraki's mouth barely feeling the air shift from his nostrils. The urge to just snuff that man's life away was a thought. Tatsumi quickly left it behind. Bringing his attention to the younger man. Even in his position on Muraki's chest the man still looked so innocent, so beautiful. The shadow master raised a hand, pulling some of the brunette's hair out of his face being careful not to touch his skin on remembering what Hisoka said about breaking the contact. It made the secretary even more tense at the fact that the slightest thing could go wrong and he could lose Tsuzuki in the process. 

"If I see anything any disturbance I'm pulling you out."

"Brave words, Shinigami."

Tatsumi knew Oriya had been watching him for some time. Though the swordsman was skilled in the art of stealth. The secretary could sense movements of shadows which clearly told him that there was someone else in the room with him.

"Would you not do the same?" the Shinigami simply asked.

"Yes. I would give my life for Muraki if it came down to it."

"Why...why do you trust him so? After all that he has done?"

Tatsumi turned his head over toward the swordsman who was leaning against the doorway. His posture making him somewhat more feminine looking.

"Tell me, Tatsumi-san. Do you know how it is to love someone and watch them get hurt in front of your eyes? To not know why you can't do anything to help them as they tear their life up and you just stand there doing nothing? For you to love that someone and see them go completely insane and lose all sense of themselves? To be uncontrolled by their own actions because of a hidden pain inside? Tell me, Tatsumi-san. Do you have any idea what had happened to Muraki? What that man had really went through in life? You to judge him. We all have our reasons even you. Just as that freak has his and why he took it under his own decision to be the one to enter Muraki's mind even at the risk."

Tatsumi was on pins and needles to think that anybody would give Muraki an excuse was beyond him.

"Muraki has done more then his share of wrong. What reason would I have to think him as anything else but what he is, a murderer. For what its worth, Muraki deserved this."

'Because he, too, had a life?. A childhood.? He who judges also should be judged themselves."

Oryia couldn't have shown Tatsumi anymore realistic as it was and he thought then maybe Tatsumi got it. That the pompous secretary finally understood. He seen the Shinigami lower his head looking back at his companion.

Feeling a defeat come over him. No. He didn't know what had happened in Muraki's past. Why the man became a cold-blooded murderer. But he did know how it felt to be helpless and do nothing while he watched Tsuzuki almost take his own life. It was this man here that had caused his ex-partner to try and kill himself. No matter what terrible thing Muraki might have experienced in life, it could never change the hatred he had for the man.

"This is not how it should have been. It shouldn't have been Tsuzuki going. Not after all that has happened in Kyoto. All that Muraki has done to him. It's disturbing to see this. To see Tsuzuki chance his life for this so called devil spawn."

Oryia was now next to him looking at the two as well.

"I find this image just as disturbing as you, if not more. Do you think I want that freak inside my friend's mind? But I came to realize that he may be the only one to save Muraki and somewhere deep down in you I think you know this as well. Believe it or not, Tatsumi-san these two lying on this bed no matter how hard we want to deny it, have the strongest connection to each other. Perhaps they're not that much different, but I don't know that freak's past just as you don't know Muraki's. What I do know is that I believe that Tsuzuki is the only one who can get to Muraki and stop this demon. And in spite of having to break the demon barrier you also have to get passed Muraki's. Tsuzuki is the only one who holds that key to Muraki's heart, curse him for it, too. That ungrateful little prick! In my opinion, he doesn't deserve it and Muraki is a fool for allowing himself to fall for the man. On the contrary though, it seems to me that the freak just might have a soft spot for Muraki as well. If he does then I have no doubt that Tsuzuki won't help him. In fact, I'm banking on it."

Tatsumi questioned him. Not wanting to find any truth in what Oriya was saying.

"What are you trying to say? That Muraki actually has a heart to begin with? The man tried to killed Tsuzuki! Use him! There is no way that something like that is capable of caring and if it is possible that Tsuzuki would never let what Muraki did to his partner to him be forgiven. The only reason Tsuzuki took up this assignment was because he felt guilty for stabbing him."

"Is that what you really think? You seen it as much as I did. The face that freak gave when I said Muraki was dying. It didn't look like guilt to me."

Still finding reasons more for himself than anyone, Tatsumi denied Oryia's words.

"Tsuzuki just has a kind heart. He feels pity. That is all."

Oryia shook his head hopelessly at the secretary.

"Are you that naive? Possibly even afraid that just a slight chance I'm right about your friend? That perhaps there is some form of feeling there for Muraki? Why are you afraid that he might actually care?"

The secretary had enough. He didn't want to think that on an off chance what Oriya was saying just might be true. Even though a part of him believed it himself. He mind refused to except such things. Tsuzuki would never fall for someone like Muraki. A contradiction. A complete opposite. A murderer.

"I don't have to hear this. I'm going back out."

He watched the secretary depart outside and then turned his head back at the two prone bodies rendered on the bed. The view was perplexing, resembling two lovers in their final scene of death. Oriya's eyes narrowed.

To even think that made him feel somewhat disturbed. That the man laying still on top of his friend was the person that Muraki had chosen to be his lover. And all that he had done for the sadistic bastard!

But nothing could have been greater then the revenge on his half- brother. Not even this freak could win on that one. Oryia second guessed his thought. Muraki has always been a man who knew exactly what he was getting into and was always one step ahead of the game. Something never sat right for me with the outcome of that night in Kyoto.

"What really happened to you Muraki?" I better not lose you to this. Why do you have to be so anal? Tsuzuki, please, don't fail him. Don't let that bastard get ahold of him. Bring my Kazutaka back."

* * *

Open Closets Part 2 _Tsuzuki and Muraki_

_Next back into the mind of Muraki as we go deeper into his mermories._


	10. Chapter 6 Open Closets: 2

_Here it is the next chapter of Skeletions in the Closet. Sorry to of kept you waiting so long. I hope it was worth it though._

_Muraki and Tsuzuki_

**Open Closets**

**Part Two**

* * *

_To put the life of a helpless human in the palms of your own hands. To know that if you make one vital mistake you can damage, even destroy a family's life forever. To know that you and you alone are playing the role of god and that there is a human trusting you with their very existence. That is power. That is patience. That is precision. That is fear._

For years I've waited for the day to finally see my father. Not that I thought I ever would. I dreamed of having a family that was complete. To see my mother finally happy. Okay and maybe I also envied him being a doctor. I had always been a child curious towards that certain profession. Going through my grandfather's files had always intrigued me. That is how I came to find you which stoked my curiosity even further.

To a boy's most loveliest dreams you had become one. To see my father was another. To know from his long absence we would have great conversations on his daily experiences within the hospital. You see, being that I never even seen my father I could only wonder what he would be like and as a child I had only a picture in my mind of what I would expect.

So, of course, I never blamed my father for not coming to see me. He was a very busy man. Doctors usually are. That was the excuse I used to verify his absence and I just waited, hoping that the day would come. That at least one of my dreams would be fulfilled.

But sometimes a child's dream is only its worst nightmare.

_"Kazu, Kazu! Where are you? There is somebody here who would like to see you."_

_"Oh, angel, he's here!"_

_The young boy throws the picture back under his pillow after giving it a quick kiss._

_"Kazu?"_

_"Yes! Yes, Mother, here I come!"_

Tsuzuki watches as a much older Muraki appeared from out of the room.

The guardian was aware of how beauty was plagued on certain people. Hisoka was one. A very pretty boy, his features feminine and delicate.

But Muraki...this child was simply breathtaking. Even as he grew older, his flawless beauty seemed to bloom even more, if that were possible. He had to be about the same age as Hisoka which was fifteen maybe sixteen.

Tsuzuki has seen some beautiful people in his life but not a single one with fair skin like Muraki. Not even the Snow Queen of Beatrix Kingdom skin could compare to his. Pale skin contrasting the black outfit he wore, fitting perfectly to his tall and slender frame with hair the same pale shade. Eyes of steel grey so intense, you couldn't help but be mesmerized. Wait. Not steel grey.  
Grey with a hint of blue almost like the gem hematite. No wonder his mother treasured him so. He was a vibrant soul with so much life and energy. This side of Muraki, Tsuzuki only seen in the child guide. This Muraki was the Muraki before he became that horrendous killer he is now. A Muraki that was still naive from a world of torture and hate. This Muraki was everything good and pure. The thought made the shinigami shiver in his skin. A bright smile lit his face. The Muraki he wished to have known.

The guardian turned to look at the younger Muraki holding the doll close to his chest. The boy's eyes sad as they wander over his older self.

Forever my world changes before me

Unknowing my eyes become tainted and blind

The innocence once held within this body no longer exist.

I am now a product of what I am to become in the future. Your future.

The child-like guide walked down the stairs staring in the direction of his older self. Tsuzuki's smile fades as he follows, wondering why the angel-like child's face has suddenly turned sad.

Proper in his stance yet overwhelmed with shock, Muraki stared at the man before him. A tall man with honey blonde hair properly cut and kept. Fine toned muscles shaped his face giving him a dominating look of masculinity Truly a very strong and frightening looking man. As even in his blue eyes he demanded respect. Features nothing like Muraki's whatsoever. Even his nose was strongly built like an aristocrat and voice a low baritone that would cause any man to fall into the shadows and hide.

_"Hello Kazutaka. I am Shinakio Muraki, your father."_

_"Father!"_

_Muraki runs to hug him. The man smiles pulling him back._

_"Yes. Well, you certainly have grown into a nice young man now, haven't you?"_

_The man clears his throat._

_"Kazutaka, I have another guest here for whom I think you should meet."_

An older looking boy, this one very similar to Hisoka in features except the vibrant green eyes. This young boy sported eye of ice blue and was a bit taller then Muraki.

_"This here is Saki Shindou, your half brother."_

_Muraki subconsciously pulls away from the large hands of his father._

_Confusion sweeps over the boy as he steps back._

_"I don't understand, my half brother? But how? He looks older than me."_

_He looks back at his father for an explanation in which the man blandly replies._

_"Actually, Kazutaka, he is about two weeks older than you."_

_The man goes to touch him but he recoils back in shock._

_"But how...how is that possible?"_

_Frantic, the young angel puts enough distance between him and his father, allowing the man to realize his discomfort._

_"You were conceived after your brother." He simple said._

Tsuzuki looked over at the child-like guide walking back up the stairs. His facial expression emotionless as he walked the long staircase. He quickly followed.

My dreams had been shattered in less then a few minutes. It was like staring into a hidden lie. The truth had been spilled. I was not the first and only son. Father had been living his days with another child all these years. It was not because of his duties as a doctor that he never came to see me. It was because he had taken up house with another family. He had abandoned us. The irony of it was that he came only because the woman he impregnated fell ill and died. So I guess I could say my dream to see my father did come true. Just not the way I wanted it to. Seeing someone that my father found more important then me was a heartache in itself. I wanted to scream. I wanted to hit him and hurt him and tell him just how I felt, but I didn't.

Being that I was brought up properly from my mother my only choice was to hold my tongue from what I really wanted to say. But I knew that it would have made no difference. Not for me or for him but for my mother.

She didn't want me to see it, though. The sadness she really carried. But I knew. She didn't hide it too well under the mask. They would fight and then pretend like nothing happened making our family seem like the perfect display of true family values. Obviously it wasn't.

The little angel opened a door and walks into a very dark room, where the only light entering was from the streams of moonlight through the cracks of the oversized drapes hung high but still tracing a line of fabric laying lazily on the floor. Then Tsuzuki notices a boy's figure against a wall his ear pressed hard to it. The guardian listened carefully himself.

_"He doesn't even look like me. How do I know he is even my son."_

There was an echo of a slapping sound followed by a female's voice.

_"How dare you! How could you even say those words to me it was you who left and fell in love with that woman! I had waited for you! Me and your son. Don't you understand, he loves you!_

_"They're at it again, huh?"_

_The boy was startled pushing himself away from the wall to see his so-called half-brother in the doorway. Kazutaka wanted to be angry with Saki. Tell him to get out. But he didn't. He just tilted his head down._

_"Yeah."_

_Saki walked into the room and touched the wall in which Kazutaka was just at. He slides his finger down making small invisible patterns against it._

_Kazutaka moves to his bed throwing himself down onto it. He reaches over to turn on the light, but is soon caught by his brother's hand._

_"No leave it off. I do want anyone to think we are awake."_

_Kazutaka tenses up. He looks at his brother fully for the first time. He didn't seem as bad as he had thought. He was a normal boy just like him. He probably was just as confused as he was at this whole ordeal. He relaxes and makes a deep sigh._

_"You seem to be interested in what they are arguing about. Doesn't it bother you the least bit?"_

_Kazutaka looks at him angrily and turns over._

_"No."_

_"Why would you put your ear to the wall then?"_

_The younger boy lets out a choked sob. Remembering what it was he did hear, what his father had said._

_"I don't know. I mean why would he say such a thing though?"_

_" Don't worry little brother. He had said the same thing about me."_

_"He did?" the pale boy sobbed, rubbing his nose._

_"Yes. But don't let it get to you. Don't let that man make you sad, Kazu. I am still here for you. Even though we had just met. I am still your big brother and I promise to not let anything ever happen to you or anybody to ever hurt you."_

_The boy felt warm hands run through his hair and it relaxed him. Not even mother was this gentle with him. He closed his eyes and curled into a ball._

_"Do you promise?"_

_" I promise."_

_Those last words he heard as he slowly drifted to sleep._

Just maybe things won't be so bad after all.

Tsuzuki touched the little boy's hand as he seen him crying. The boy looked back up at him and smiled grabbing tighter to the guardian's hand and pulled him out of the room

"Come, Angel."

They walked down the hall when Tsuzuki suddenly heard a crunching sound. He could tell it was coming from below his feet and curiously looked down. Small broken pieces of glass painted pale and cream colors. Some even had trances of blood on it.

He stopped the child abruptly and picked up a piece, rubbing it against his fingers. Porcelain. It was porcelain. He then looked up to see the whole hallway filled with broken dolls. Most shattered while others left with half faces and no legs, arms, or even bodies. They were painted in red and the faces looked like they were so sad and in so much pain

Much like that of a human massacre.

"What is this?" he pulled the child roughly toward him.

"It's the next chapter in my life, Angel. Don't you want to see it?"

* * *

**Next Chapter**: Open Closets Part Three 

The next chapter will contiune from where this chapter left off and describe more of Muraki's past.

_I have left these damaged jewels for you._

_amoung them I lay shattered to pieces._

_you could cure them with glue_

_but I will still remain broken_


	11. Chapter 6 Open Closets: 3

_Sorry for the long delay.My computer crashed on me and I lost everything. I had to rewrite this chapter and I am hoping it is a good one.There is going to be one more part to this chapter after this one and then we will be out of Muraki's mind for a moment and back with Oriya, Tatsumi , Watari and Hisoka._

_Thank you to everybody who has been reading this story thus far. For the great reviews and support.Thank you also to my wonderful beta reader. _

_Young Muraki/ Tsuzuki_

**Open Closets**

**Part Three**

* * *

The young angel pulled on Tsuzuki's sleeve as the dolls around them crunched from under his feet. He had a bad feeling about this. Then again anything involving Muraki had to be bad. The young child opened a door and they were invited into darkness. 

Tsuzuki subconsiously gripped the young boy's hand tightly as the room revealed itself in front of his eyes. A curious similarity came to his senses as he noticed the dolls lining the shelf walls and floor. The doll room again. The only difference was that it was not as neat as it had been when he first saw it. This time there were dolls scattered on the floor, out of place from the rest of Muraki's mother's collection.

She was brushing her son's hair. Slowly twisting the brush in a downward motion through the fine silky strands of silver, only to repeat the process again. There was no smile on her face just a serene calmness, an adoring mother tending to her child.

"_Kazutaka, your hair is as soft as silk, why do you not take care of it like your mother does? You should never let such beauty go to waste."_

"My mother obsessed over my beauty. I personally was tired of it. I didn't want to be pretty anymore. At least not to the extent my mother was trying to make me. I was not one of her dolls. I was a human. A boy. Wasn't I?"

The child-guide paused for a brief moment to consider the question himself.

"I wanted to know why my face was so pale, my eyes gray. Why was I different?"

_"Mother, how was I born? I mean, was it in grandfather's hospital?"_

_The brush stopped in mid-stroke as her hand grabbed tight to his shoulder. Tight enough to see a burse form under her pink fingers. The child gasped as he tried to loosen from the grip._

_"Mother, you're...you're hurting me."_

_Her grip loosened as she turned her son around to face her, eyes wide with tears._

"To look at those eyes. A completely blank expression yet filled with tears. I didn't know what to say. Fear and sadness consumed me. Why was she looking at me like that? Was all I thought. Why did she hurt me?"

_"You are special, my son. Haven't I told you that? These tiny marks are nothing."_

_"You are my perfect little angel." She rubbed her hand through his hair and looked seriously into the boy's eyes._

_"Mother?" The boy's voice cracked as her grip on his shoulder tightened_.

_"Shh. Kazu, listen. Do you hear that?"_

_She looks around the room. Her eyes skimming over toward Tsuzuki and the child-like guide. Then the eyes settled into the corner of the room._

_"There are voices are everywhere. They want to take you away from me. He wants to take you away."_

_Her hands were shaking against the boy's shoulders._

_"You can't have him, you hear! He is mine!" She peered out to the dark corner of the room. Narrowing her eyes as though there was another presence in there with them._

But there was no sound. Even with the ability Tsuzuki had to see through shields beyond human eyes, he could not make out any other disturbances besides him and the child-like guide in the room. At first he thought maybe it was them she was looking at. But her gaze clearly was fixed on the corner of the room that appeared to be darker then the rest.

_"Mother, you're scaring me...stop."_

_She turned back to him and griped even harder, her knuckles becoming white._

_"Kazu, don't you see! You are not like ordinary humans. You are beyond them. Just look at you! So beautiful, so perfect. That is why he wants to take you away from me, so he can have you for himself."_

_She lowered her gaze to look into her son's widened eyes, her voice desperate_

_"He'll take you from me! Don't go to him, he will hurt you!"_

_The young child tried to struggle out of her grip, wincing at the discomfort his mother was causing upon his shoulders._

_"Mom, I don't understand. What...what are saying?"_

_She looked at him as her face suddenly shifted to anger. She pushed him away from her._

_"Go! Leave me be you demon spawn! Get out! GET OUT!"_

_Confused, Muraki tried to go to her only for her to recoil from his touch._

_"Mom..?"_

_"No! Don't touch me! You will fall among those who have sinned. Your innocence will be no more! A devil's concubine, you carry the blood of a demon."_

Looking down at the child-like guide next to him, Tsuzuki could see his lips moving but it was not the child's voice he was hearing but the voice of the school children. The ones that taunted him and called him names.

_**Your mother was a whore who slept with the devil, no human could have eye's and skin as pale as your's. You're not even human...human...human...**_

The words just kept repeating itself over and over again.

_"You are no longer my son! Be damned!"_

_**Not even human...**_

_She grabbed a knife and lunged at her son with all her might. It missed as the young boy was grabbed by his faithful servant Sakaki causing the knife to jab into the carpet instead. Her hand let go of the handle as she, too, was pulled back by one of the maids._

_Kazutaka could only stare in shock. The young child realized what had happened as he looked at the embedded knife halted into the carpet. Sakaki grabbed him in a tight embrace as the boy started to cry. He didn't know why his mother tried to kill him._

Tsuzuki, crushed at the scene, held his hand to his chest. For a child to have to bear witness of such a thing was heart breaking.

"Why would a mother do such a thing to her son? To say those cruel words to you? You were only a child."

The child guide's voice was indifferent.

"Tsuzuki do you know what schizophrenia is?"

"What?" The shinigami turned to stare at him.

"Schizophrenia. Do you know what it means?"

Tsuzuki nodded. He had heard of it before while on a case a few years back. It was better left up to Watari to figure out the scientific facts of their case's. But what he came up with was that it was a sickness that dealt with the mind and that it could cause them to become quite dangerous to deal with because there mind was not there own.

"Like a possession, right?" The guardian replied.

The boy became amused again and smiled at his angel.

"Perhaps."

The boy walked over to the mirror. Running his small hand over his face up to the temple of his head.

"The act of unrealistic delusions. A mental illness most commonly involving manifesting such cases as auditory hallucinations. A byproduct of one's over imaginative mind. Basically, the person who carries this disease is considered insane."

The boy slid his fingers through his hair, stopping to hold it away from his face to view his face more closely.

"My mother was to be sent to a asylum for treatment but Father refused to allow such an act to happen. He took it upon himself to care of her. I, on the other hand was not to see her alone. Somehow my appearance had caused her to go 'crazy'."

His finger slid underneath his right eye pulling at the taunt skin to open it up more. The diameter around the eye became larger, causing a uncanny resemblances to the false eye the Muraki Tsuzuki known to have.

"It hurt."

For a moment Tsuzuki thought he was talking about that eye. The child let go of his hair and it fell beautifully against his temples.

"To know that your own mother found your very presence unwanted. I wanted nothing more then at that moment to fall in deep depression. My mother could'nt bear to look at me! Her only son. But still I had hope. Deep down in the core of her heart I knew she still loved me and I loved her, she was my mother after all."

His voice sounded as though there was false hope in that statement. Did he really believe that there was a possibility that perhaps she wasn't his mother?

"She took care of you. Even if she was not..."

The child-Muraki glared at him.

"No! There is no other possible way! That woman is my mother. She said it herself.I won't accept anything different!" The child-like guide looked at his angel with such sadness.

"She...she was sick."

Tsuzuki went over to him and leaned down to his level touching the tiny shoulder. The boy turns around moving out of the touch. He couldn't possibly know what the boy was going through. His mother loved him dearly with all her heart and was always there to comfort him when he was hurt. With that thought Tsuzuki suddenly felt his stomach drop at the boy rejecting him. But did not show any signs that the sudden movement bothered him.

"Soon she was taking medication to calm her nerves from my appearance and Saki would come with me when I was to visit her. I could remember it to clearly the night he had slapped my mother."

The vision before Tsuzuki's eyes changed. The room now was in complete disarray. The mirror that Muraki was looking into was now cracked and dolls laid on the floor in piles. One resting in Muraki's mothers hand. She was combing its hair and smiling upon the porcelain face. The door opened. She looked up and smiled at her son, reaching her hand out to him.

_" Kazu. Come here my son."_

_The child walked over hesitant to touch her but feels her hand touch his as her smile widens, adoring her son once more. She runs her fingers down the child's cheek slowly to the nape of his neck . Over fabric till it halted at the base of the right side of his chest._

_" Your heart beats fast. Are you afraid of me, Kazu? Your own mother."_

_She sighed deeply when she doesn't receive an answer._

_"I must stop this before it gets too far. Before he consumes your very soul."_

_She smiled at her son bearing those few moments to be loving and caring towards him. Then she looked over toward Saki and she lashed out at him throwing the boy on the ground._

_"Fool!"._

_She moves to slap the tramatized child again but her hand is held fast._

_Saki without thinking pulls her away from Kazutaka and slaps her hard in the face._

_"You dare raise a hand to your own child, you are the fool!" His voice contorted with such anger._

_She screamed and cried like a child herself as she backed into the corner away from Saki. The fright in her eyes at the look of him. Like a child waking from a nightmare only for the nightmare to be trapping her in the corner. She screamed huddling her knees to her chest hands in her face._

_"No! Get away! Get away from me!"_

"I wonder what she saw in Saki. As much as she was in her state of delusion and wanting to hurt me she didn't want to hurt him. She seemed to fear him."

The voices started up again.

_**"Look at him! He's not even human. No human has eyes and hair the color of yours."**_

_**"A Demon."**_

**_"The Devil's child."_**

Breaking into echos as the voices kept repeating themselves over and over again. Suddenly a woman's voice came over all them. Loud, slowly and soft.

_**"You are a gift from God. You are beyond human."**_

Then came a silence. Everything froze into place.

"Am I?"

Tsuzuki heard the child say. He looked to see Kazutaka staring at him in hopes of getting an answer. His mouth gaped open bemused that the child could see him. He thought he was invisible. That him and the child guide could not be seen. He looks over toward his guide and noticed that he was looking at him as well. Tsuzuki was speechless. What could he possibly say to him?

The child laughed and took his guardian's hand.

"You and me, we are the same."

"And what might that be?"

The child just smiled and turned his attention away from him.

"That night I looked at my brother as my savior. He protected me from that hand that surly would of ended in a another painful memory of my childhood."

"As I hoped the medication would work my mother's condition was only becoming worse. I came to theories that maybe at what she said about me being a demon was true, but then what of the good part? Was that not important? I was only still a child. Still so naive and innocent accepting nothing less. From that, Saki made sure of it as well."

The room goes black leaving only a vision of Kazutaka and his brother. They were sitting on the ground. Kazutaka's face streaked with tears as his brother held him tight.

_"Why does she keep saying that someone will take me away? Who will take me away?"_

_Saki softly rubs the pink mark on his little brother's face, wiping up some tears as he went._

_"I would not worry about it, little brother. Your mother's not in her right mind. What she says is of her own imagination nothing more."_

_Kazutaka lifts his head up to look at him._

_"Now stop crying. You have to be strong, Kazu."_

_"But...but then who will take care of me? Father is at work all the time. My mother can't bear to even be near me. Who will...?"_

_Saki gentle cups his brother face with both hands._

_"I will. Didn't I promise you I wouldn't let anything happen to you?"_

_"Yes," the boy sniffles in._

_"Then trust my word,' Kazu. Even if it is your mother I wont let it happen. I won't let her hurt you again."_

_**"Do not ever let yourself be broken." **__A female voiced out at the same time Saki said it._

A tear fells from Kazutaka right eye. But it was no ordinary tear. This tear streaked his face with a red color similar to blood. Saki wipes the tear away and Tsuzuki notices the child-like guide looking at his finger. It had a small drop of blood on it. That slowly decended between the crack of his finger.

"I am already broken."

* * *

**Next Chapter**: Open Closet's Part Four. 

Black and White

A beautiful disparity.

A compliment to eachother.

Both sharing strengh and power.

Neither can win over the other.

For both to share is to be..

...equal

...mutual

the color of gray.


	12. Chapter 6 Open Closets: 4

_Hello everybody. I know it's been some time sense I updated this fic. I had really lost track of alot of my stories and this one was no exception. I finally, after long hours of staring and changes that had to be made, finished it. Thank to Jollyolly too for beta-ing it and to all my readers out there as well :D I do so hope you enjoy this chapter._

_Very mild content in chapter involoving male / male themes, also bad language._

_Young Muraki/ Tsuzuki_

**Open Closets**

**Part Four

* * *

**

Broken….

Tsuzuki understood all to well what it was like to be broken. He stared down at the boy wanting nothing more then to hold him in his arms, comfort him like he was by his mother the days he came home bloody and bruised from those horrid walks home from school. His mother was there to hold and comfort him, to tell him everything will be all right. Muraki did not have his mother.

As Tsuzuki bent down to comfort him, the child-like guide looked up smiling. It ruined the illusion of a sad child needing comfort, seeing Muraki beam back to life and grab Tsuzuki's hand instead. The blood had completely disappeared from his face and hand, as if what happened just minutes ago was never there to begin with. Tsuzuki was beginning to think he was the one going crazy, not Muraki's mother.

"Would you like to see my new school?"

Tsuzuki really didn't have a choice either way because suddenly they stood in front of a very large building covered in heavy snow. From certain areas Tsuzuki could see dark brown bricks and white shutters for windows, all completely closed probably from the winter season. The children were all dressed in different clothes, some in jeans and shirts, others dresses and suits. All to fit the fashion of this particular era. They were also much older then the children were when Tsuzuki saw Muraki's first school. Realizing that this must have been a high school of some sort.

"Father thought it best to enroll me back into school, just not a private one, .besides if things were to go bad I had Saki there. He was always there. Like a protective brother he was always by my side. Though in this school I was not haunted with the name calling or teasing. The boys from the school where intimidated by me and my brother, the girls awestruck. I guess the older you get the more different people view you. My brother was a beautiful counterpart to myself with his light blue eyes and warm welcoming smile. He always had a way with the ladies and they seemed to melt into it. I, on the other hand, was ogled by my beauty alone. I didn't think anything of it, my mother always gave me enough praise on my unique looks that I found the sighs and dreamy looks towards me to be more annoying than anything. My brother didn't seem to like it either. I could tell by the faces he made as the girls stared. Even when one of the boys from school tried to fight me, my brother would step in to protect me. It was a security I felt comfortable with my brother, I felt safe around him. But sometimes his protection over me made me seem weak.. It seemed to get out of hand.

Then things changed.

There was a new student who had come into our class a very tall boy with long black hair fitted into a ponytail. He seemed out of place, much like me and my brother. It was always interesting to me to see new students. But this one seemed to be a kid who spent much time with himself. I was once that child before Saki came into my life. Now I was one of the popular kids. The one everyone wanted to be friends with, despite my reputation my brother would never let anyone get close."

A gust of wind passed through them and Tsuzuki quickly shielded his eyes from the oncoming snow that had jetted towards them. On opening them back up he seen that they were now in a large playground where a bunch of kids were seen standing within a circle. The child-like guide pulled Tsuzuki over and the purple-eyed guardian could see that there was two teenage boys within the circle without there coats on. A face off it looked to be. One of the boys was a short blonde haired teenager which looked pretty buff, maybe he was a school athletic, the other was the new kid from the classroom, though he seemed to have a athletic build himself, he was much skinnier then his opponent .They seemed to have all ready started the fight because the blonde boy was clearly bleeding from the mouth.

_"You think your so tough, huh? You new kids need to learn some respect towards your betters."_

_"Respect? What respect does one have on trying to fight the new kid ? I have done nothing to any of you but you decide to attack me unfairly? That's injustice. I'm only one person. What you can't fight me alone?'_

_And it was on, the bigger guy didn't hold anything back but the other kid for his size sure was giving him a run for his money. Just as the smaller kid got the advantage another kid jumped in and then another. It was four against one, A very unfair number, but still even with every blow he gave it all that he got and fought._

_He lay beaten, the snow covering his clothes that were stained with blood giving the snow a pinkish glow._

"I was just coming home from school, my brother had to stay after for a student council meeting, being that he was the president of the student body. I did not have to attend it. Even though I was the vice-president , it was only for him and the teachers. On my walk home, that is when I saw him lying on the ground. I couldn't just leave him there. I knew how it felt to be the odd one out I was once like him and so I ran over to see what had happened."

_"Are you okay?"_

_The badly beaten teenager batted Muraki's hand away._

_" I'm fine!"_

_Slowly he tried getting up, without much success._

_"Well you certainly don't look fine to me. Who did this to you?"_

_" Why should you care? Just go back to your high-class world and leave me be. I said I was fine!"_

_Muraki pulled the boy up roughly, causing the other to cry out._

_" What the hell did you do that for!?"_

_"You did say you were fine, I didn't think it would have mattered much"_

_The kid looked at him in disbelief. The boy even though tightly buttoned up and having a hat and scarf covering most of his face had the most particular eyes he'd ever seen. They were beautiful, especially when the snow complemented them even more so._

_Taken quickly out of his trance by a sharp pain admitting from his arm._

_" It's dislocated."_

_He noticed the angelic boy examining the shoulder area with extreme measure._

_" Hold still and I will pop it back in place."_

_The long haired boy just nodded. and within seconds heard a loud crack and even sharper pain throughout his whole arm which caused him to hunch over and scream out._

_" Did you have to do it so hard?!"_

_" Well, it would have to be popped back into place eventually now wouldn't it of. Here."_

_Muraki pulls off his scarf and wraps it around the other bloody hand._

_"This will staunch the bleeding if you hold it tight. I see you must have gotten a few good hits in." Muraki looked over the swollen hand._

_" How do you know all this stuff?"_

_"My father is a doctor"_

_"Oh."_

_There was an awkward silence as Muraki continued to examine the boy for any more injuries._

_"What's your name?"_

_" What's it to you?"_

_A little annoyed. Muraki tightens the scarf tighter then it should have been making the other wince slightly._

_"Usually when you meet someone you introduce yourself. It's called courtesy. At least that is what us higher class people know it as."_

_The other boy grumbled_

_" All right. I get I get it. The name is Oriya."_

_"See that wasn't so bad now ,was it? my name is Kazutaka. You know you need to take better care of yourself. The streets are much safer then these back areas."_

_" Well ,thank you for the kind advice but I didn't think I was going to get jumped by a angry mob of bullies from my school ,"sounding more sarcastic then anything._

_" We must always be cautious of our surroundings . Not everybody is as friendly as you would like them to be and even less excepting .You're new to the school so it is easy for people to point the finger at something they don't know much about. You have a unique look about you. I can tell you are not from around here."_

_Oryia just stared at him bewildered . Of course he was unique but not as distinctive and different as the boy next to him. He had never seem features so pale and flawlessly angelic. Perhaps it was because his so called uniqueness was not of beauty like this guy's that he was attacked so violently. Some guys have all the luck._

_"Have you ever..."_

_"I have had my moments."_

_Oriya could see the distraught look in his face. But believed it couldn't be any worse then having girls flock to his feet and him having to choose which one he wanted to date. The teenage boy had to be something of an attention getter with his beauty no doubt and apparently had to have come from a higher class family to be dressed as he was and with such profound manners. People probably stopped in their tracks to lay out a red carpet and sprinkle sakura petals in his walk to school. This guy truly had it made._

_"There seems to be nothing else wrong. Can you stand?" Again thrown out of his thoughts, Oriya pulled away from those warm hands around his arm._

_"Of course I can stand!."_

_He wobbles as he tries to stand having Muraki catch him ._

_"Your…"_

_"I'm fine really"_

_Muraki tucked his arm under the others shoulder and lifted him up all the way. Ignoring the pull the other boy did and gripped tighter._

_"Don't be so pig headed, you're too confident in yourself. Clearly you're having trouble getting up. Let someone help you at least this once. Now where are you heading?"_

_Oriya gave in allowing the boy to assist him. He had never once had someone so determined to help him, especially after a fight. Normally anyone who would of tried helping him would of stormed off by now from all his ranting. He wouldn't even blink an eye back at them He was so used to taking care of himself. All of his life he had to learn discipline in training to do it by yourself. It was the way of a warrior. The way his father had taught him. It was weird allowing someone other then himself to help him, but it felt comforting, nonetheless. And he smiled as the boy dragged him to the train station._

_"You will be able to make it from here, right?"_

_" Yes. My father will be waiting at the train station in Kyoto."_

_Muraki smiles at him._

_"If you meet me tomorrow morning at the school entrance I will give you a tour of the school."_

_"Umm…"_

_"Good, I'll see you then …bye"_

_Before Oryia could protest the angelic boy left. Angelic that is what that boy was. An angelic angel that saved his life._

" So that is how you and Oryia meet."

Tsuzuki thought to himself as the scene faded away causing them to end up back in the hall of doors.

The child-like guide tugged Tsuzuki along ignoring the slight pull back his guardian angel did. They ended up going into a door that was cracked half open. There were no lights on. Just a dark silhouette of a bed and a child sleeping in it but there was something else too. Something else in the corner that moved slowly over toward the bed.

The shadow sat down near the window and looked over the sleeping body. There were no words passed through his mouth just two dilated pupils staring directly at his brother. The scene was quite strange. Tsuzuki walked in more to take a closer look noticing that it was Saki who was staring at his brother.

Puzzled, he takes another step only for the scene to quickly change again bringing them back to the school yard. Tsuzuki was getting fed up with all these sudden changes and it was making him quite dizzy He pulled at the boy hard to get his attention , but halted his action as he heard someone's voice yell out. It was an uncommon tone he had never heard the boy make before, angry and deep. Words that demanded more then asked came out of the familiar voice from its owner, Saki.

_"Where were you yesterday?"_

The guardian heard the voice from behind him and turned to see both Saki and Muraki walking toward the school, toward him. He moved out of the way as they passed him by. The child guide walks over toward the shinigami and grabs his hand pulling him to walk behind the other two. Tsuzuki really puzzled now especially with what happened in the last scene he hesitates for just a moment before willingly following.

_" I was helping the new kid." Muraki shrugged his shoulder from the cold air._

_"You were suppose to go straight home."_

_" He needed my help. He was…."_

_"I don't care! I was worried…. father was worried. I had to make up a lie for you, Kazu."_

_" I'm sorry, Saki. I was just trying to help."_

_" Well, don't next time!"_

Muraki stopped abruptly. Turning to face his brother. The child-like guide stopped as well almost causing Tsuzuki to slam into him.

_" How could you say that. He was hurt really bad."_

_" It is not your concern. When if something was to happen to you. Then what?"_

_" But it didn't."_

_"But it could have!" The rage in Saki's voice made his brother move back slightly._

_Saki calmed his nerves softly touching Muraki's cheeks making his brother look at him._

_" Kazu, I promised to protect you, don't make this difficult on me please."_

_Muraki pushes the hands away irritated._

_"Saki, you're acting like my mother. I'm not some fragile doll that always needs protecting. Ever since mother had gotten sick you have not left my side. You push my friends away, you give me no room to breath, to have a life of my own."_

_" Have you forgotten I was the one there for you when your mother tried to hit you? I was there for you when you needed comfort and a safe place to go. Me, Kazu! Only me!" The older boy spat out._

_" Well, I don't need it no longer. I don't need you following me all the time_.

_"Then what, Kazu? What do you need?"_

_Saki seemed to be pleading, but showed no action towards it. Just a desperation in his voice_

_" What I need is my own life."_

_Muraki backed up and looked at his brother with hurtful sad eyes. He knew that what he said probably tore his brother's heart. But it was the only way. If he just turned around and walked away it would be easier then looking into those confused eyes and so he did leaving his brother to just stand there._

The child-like guide pulled Tsuzuki again leaving the scene before them and ended up walking to where Muraki was standing at the front of the school building. They stood there for what seemed like over an hour. Tsuzuki didn't see the point in just standing around . Strange enough the weather did not seem to bother them one bit despite the windy chill that blew past them. He could only imagine how cold Muraki must have been just standing there waiting. Waiting for what? Finally the child-like guide moved pulling a piece of icicle from off a tree branch.

"This was going to be the big change in my life. Starting here I decided on who I wanted my very first friend to be besides Saki. I waited and waited for Oriya to show, but he never did."

Tsuzuki looked over toward Muraki as the bell rang for class. The teenager pulled his school bag onto his back looking one more time out into the streets and then walked into the building.

So he was waiting for Oriya. Tsuzuki flashed back to when he came here with the others. The hatred the swordsman had for him. Why didn't he show up? What was his purpose in your life, Muraki?

Tsuzuki is pulled hard on his coat.

"Come, Tsuzuki! Stop thinking so much, it will all come into play soon enough."

The child-like guide throws a snowball at the shinigami laughing as it hits him in the face. Tsuzuki could not help but laugh either and grabs a snow ball himself throwing it at the child, completely missing and hitting a tree instead. The child-like guide picked up another snowball but was soon hit with one knocking him down into the snow.

Tsuzuki quickly ran over to him and tried to lift him up but the angel pulled him in the snow as well. They both laughed as the guide wrote something in the snow in the shape of a heart. Tsuzuki looked at the picture with sad eyes. He knew what the boy meant when he drew it, Tsuzuki had grown a deep attachment to the child. but he also knew he would never reciprocate those feelings for the real Muraki. This child, this world was all just a by-product of what Muraki was before he became the murdering bastard he is today. He still was a murdering bastard who killed and raped his partner. Tsuzuki smiled half-heartedly at the boy.

"Everything seemed normal for awhile. My brother had laid off my back and only stood in the background as a watchful eye. In that year I was granted a girlfriend. Whom I grew very found of to say the least. She was not like the other girls who seemed to think being popular was the only way to make it through high school. She was very down to earth, being that she had asked me out instead of all the other girls who were to self-conscious to do so. Saki was not very found of her though, every time she was around he would completely ignore her, but it didn't matter Things were finally looking up in my life. I had a wonderful girlfriend and my mother was even getting better, despite her taking mounds of pills to keep her grounded. She was able to speak with me and even met my girlfriend. There were even times I wondered what had happened to that boy, Oriya. Did he get taken out of school as I did.? I guess one would never know. I would have liked to of known him better. but that part comes later. But would you believe it was only the surface that I was happy. In my heart I was crushed.

The one thing that made me the happiest was nothing but a piece of paper that I cherished with all my heart. Nothing made me happier then seeing that picture every night before I went to bed, yet so sad and miserable. I wondered if you had a lover yourself while you were alive, if you did I'm sure they were sad when you left this world. I was. I couldn't help but feel jealous at knowing you might have had a lover . Did you?"

Tsuzuki became quite poignant at the question himself. Where would he have had the time for romance being chased and accused of being a monster all his life?

"No. I didn't have a life that would allow me that pleasure."

"I bet if you did have one, your life would have been different."

"Would it of. I highly doubt it."

"Maybe."

"Tsuzuki. Do you believe in things happening for a reason?"

"It depends on what things are happening and at what moment. Why do you ask?"

"I was just wondering." The child-like guide starts tracing his fingers through the snow again. Tsuzuki looked at the boy noticing his face downcast making it hard to see the expression.

"In all honesty I thought it wrong to have these feelings for another man, but every time I looked at your picture I could not help but be attracted to it. It was a sin to find desire towards the same sex. And though I liked my girlfriend she did not give me that same excitement as it did when I looked at your picture. I started to question my sexuality but kept it hidden from anyone knowing. It was not hard considering that I found few men attractive within school. Unfortunately my sin had surfaced unexpectedly."

Tsuzuki found himself outside a narrow bridge where sakura flowers floated within a small pound trailing underneath the arch of a bridge. There was no longer snow on the ground so it must have been near spring or summer time. The place was filled with flowers and trees symmetrical designed purposely for viewing eyes, which lead Tsuzuki to believe that they were in a park of some sort or more so a garden, a botanical garden.. On the bridge were two boys. One was sitting on the edge of the bridge while the other was throwing gravel into the small pound. .

_"So you like boys, do you?"_

_Muraki froze as the stone in his hand carelessly rolled down his fingers and fell into the small pond below._

_" What ….what did to say?"_

_"You know full well what I' m talking about, Kazu I see you looking at him every night. You would look over that picture that…. that picture of that man."_

_You could here the anger in his voice at the mention of the picture. Muraki turned to look at his brother trying desperately to look calm._

_"I…I don't know what you are talking about.."_

_"Oh really? Well, then maybe he does."_

_Saki pulled out the familiar picture of the beautiful angel laying on the hospital bed with his one eye covered in bandages._

_Muraki gasped._

_" How did you get that!" Muraki tried to grab it but Saki exchanged it in his other hand. Holding the photo away from his brother's reach._

_" I found it.." He seen his little brother's panic as the wind shifted the photo within his hand._

_" Give that back to me!"_

_Muraki lunged for it but missed as Saki quickly shifted away. Saki stared at the picture eyes narrowing as he examined the paper in close proximity._

_"What is he? Some kind of wacko?"_

_"No he's not! He is….."_

_"Your what? Boyfriend?" There was a tinge of sarcasm and anger within his voice._

_Muraki blushed_

_"Shut up, just give it back!" he lunged for the picture again and was stopped with Saki grabbing his wrist._

_" So you don't deny it. Well in that case in order for me to give it back to you, you have to kiss me for it first."_

_Taken aback Muraki tried to pull away._

_"I'll do no such thing!"_

_"And why not you… you would do it for him!" Saki squeezed the wrist harder making Muraki wince from it. He finally pulled away. Muraki turned from his brother his face redder then a tomato as he rubbed the pain from his wrist away._

_"Oh , I see ….. ."_

_Saki rubs his fingers through the soft tresses of silver blonde hair._

_" You know, Kazu, you are such a hypocrite. You would go for hours just staring at this picture but would not even give a thought to your own brother. How very rude of you to hurt my feeling so."_

_"But ..but you're my brother. I would never…I mean….I wasn't trying to …."_

_A finger silenced his words._

_" Kazu, it's okay. I understand."_

_His hand slides to his collar unbuttoning one of the buttons._

_"No one has to know."_

_He comes in close to Muraki's face inches from his own lips. The hand on his chest slides lower._

_"NO!"_

_Muraki defenses go up and he punches Saki in the face. The silver haired boy stood up stunned as blood started to drip from his brother's nose. There was so much going through his head that he did the only thing he could at that moment…….he ran. Tears started to fall down his face._

_How could his own brother touch him like that? It didn't matter either way he was not about to let it happen and for his brother to even think such a way about him made him nauseous._

"I was lost at that moment. I could not understand why my brother would do that to me. Later that day I was called to see my father."

Tsuzuki and the child-guide where now in his house within a room filled with books and an office desk. There was a man sitting at the desk with his arms folded and against his forehead. Muraki walked in.

_"What is it father? What's wrong?"_

_He looked disappointed at the child as he got up from off the chair and walked passed him closing the door._

_"Saki told me all about it, how you tried to touch him."_

_He slaps Kazu in the face._

Tsuzuki gasps as he sees the child fall to the ground clutching his left cheek .The man raised his voice loud and deep toward his son. The tone in that voice alone would have any man hiding within the darkest corners to get away. Tsuzuki clinched his heart at the scene.

_"You will not show this sick display of affection in my house, Kazutaka! Is that under stood.!? Especially towards your own brother!"_

_" I ..I .."_

_"I don't want to hear another word from you. Go to your room. You disgust me."_

The scene changes again and they stand within a dark room again. Sobbing sounds are heard from a bed that was only lit faintly by the light of the moon outside. The door is heard closing and another shadow is found walking over toward the bed..

_"What are you doing in here, I have nothing to say to you." The figure on the bed sobs out._

_"Oh but I believe you do little brother. Why are you sad?"_

_Saki reaches the bed and sits down on it next to Kazu._

_"You know damn well why I a, Saki! Why would you tell father such a lie about me?"_

_"But I didn't tell him one Kazu. I just reworded them, I'm sure you wouldn't want father to take that photo you have now would you ?.I was only helping you out."_

_"You call telling my father that I made an advance toward you help! To make father think such thoughts about me."_

_"I don't see the harm in telling the truth.. I mean you are attracted to a man, a dead man at that."_

_"No, I am not."_

He laughs. Tsuzuki felt a shiver go up his spine at that simple laugh. There was something so familiar in it.

_"Oh, then I was mistaken. My brother does not take a liking towards men?"_

_"No, of course not! It's you that does" Saki goes to his brother's ear. That mocking smile still painted on his face._

_"You are wrong, brother."_

_"What do mean, then why did you do that to me outside earlier?"_

_Muraki's tear-streaked eyes look up at him confused._

_"I wanted to see how you would react. I was merely testing you. I do not mind if you have that picture it is you're after all. I was just curious."_

_"Curious of what?"_

_"Well you are always looking at that picture. I just wanted to make sure my brother was not gay."_

_Saki gets under the covers next to Muraki and holds him close._

_" Shhh. Don't cry, Kazu. I will tell father that it was a misunderstanding tomorrow ."_

_His fingers run through the soft strands of silver smiling at his brother._

_. "You don't need that picture to protect you, Kazu…that is what I am here for,. But if it makes you feel better then here. Though it is never as good as something real."_

_Saki hands the picture back to his brother then wraps his arm around him_

Tsuzuki was all ready starting to dislike Saki from the little stunt he pulled. But there was something else there as well. He just couldn't put his finger on it.

" Why would you let him do that to you and then accept him so quickly back in."

The child guide was silent. He had no answers to give his guardian angel..

" Muraki answer me!" Tsuzuki retorted.

The guide looked up at Tsuzuki indifferent.

"There is no turning back, once the hand has been set. The events of time will take it's place. These changes will create a world in which I am no longer me but a shell of my former self. Tsuzuki it was only ever you who had kept me from ending my life completely. But you couldn't save my soul. Only my heart. Is it enough?

" I don't understand. Why won't you just tell me!? You just keep giving me these damn riddles that I can't make any sense out of. What is it about me? What is it you want? Why me?! Why can't you just give me a direct answer?!"

Tsuzuki couldn't help but scream out in frustration. Nothing made sense.

What was the boy trying to tell him and why did it have to involve him in it of all people?

Tsuzuki pulled at his hair as he paced around the now visible room of doors.. He thought he would go insane with the constant change and outrageous riddles being thrown at him. But he wanted so bad to continue. To find out more about Muraki's past. He should of know that even being inside Muraki own memories he would eventually probably more or likely go insane. No.. no he wasn't going to let this happen… This is why he wanted to do this in the first place. He wanted to know why Muraki was the way he is now, why he murdered and raped his partner…why he was so obsessed with him.

Tsuzuki abruptly stopped remembering that the child-like guide was in the same room with him. He looks around noticing the boy clutching to his doll against a far wall. There was a slight fear in his eyes and his voice trembled when he spoke.

"Tsuzuki are…are you mad at me?".

Tsuzuki couldn't believe himself for acting so childish. He looked apologetically towards the boy.

" No…of course not, I'm just confused is all."

The child-like guide diffidently walked over toward the guardian.

" Is it getting late for you? Do you need to go home? Have I kept you too long?"

" No.. no. I want to stay…. please."

Tsuzuki bends down to meet the child 's eyes with his.

' I am sorry if I scared you.'

"You didn't scare me, I just thought you didn't like me anymore."

Tsuzuki pulls the boy's hair from his face seeing two lightly colored gray eyes staring at him with such sincere virtue. They were truly beautiful eyes. Lost of any filth of the world the boy was to become a part of.. The murderer he would soon come to be.

" I just don't understand.'

"You have to crawl before you walk. To know my past is to know what I am and why it is I have done the things I did. Not everything will make sense at first. I can't even explain it, but if you can be patient with me for a little longer I promise I won't disappoint you."

Tsuzuki knew he wasn't going to give up on knowing about Muraki's past so easily. Grand treasures were difficult to come by and always have a price to pay in attaining them. Muraki's past was a treasure worth more then his own sanity, if it were to even come to that. Somehow he doubted it would. He smiled at the boy as he rubbed his fingers through the fine feather like tresses of silver hair.

" Okay."

* * *

**Chapter 7:** Petals in Blood, Part One Back to the KouKakuRou and a Surprize visitor. 

_A beautiful doll which is placed upon the highest shelf to never be touched, only looked upon with fascination._

_Kept sercurely within the confines of a box or glass case to ensure that dust is never to come in contact with it._

_To protect it from predatory eyes, thieves who's very thought would be to steal all that is precious of that one treasure._

_To stare at that beautiful piece of porcelain , untouched by even your hands._

_So pure and fragile. _

_Undamaged_

_Does not the urge hit you to rip the doll from it's shelf and touch it all over claiming it as yours only. _

_To break it and smash it to pieces. Tarnished and scattered about so that they could never fit back together again, at least not entirely._

_Complete and utterly broken._


	13. Chapter 7 Petals in blood : 1

_I am extremely sorry if this chapter appears to be very short and boring. I have been on a writers block for some time now and can't seem to get out of it, sadly. I feel I have rushed on this chapter and did not give it the potential it disserved. __That is why I consider this chapter to be a crutch to the up coming chapters,which I hope to have finished sooner then this one. _

_Thank you again readers for all your encouraging comments and for also staying faithful to reading the story.It persuade's me to continue moving on and building new ideas._

**Petals in Blood **

**Part One**

_Back in KouKakuRou_

_

* * *

Even in a prone body the unconscious mind still generates an inner world within your imagination. Most of the time these are called dreams. A stepping stone to a surreal world that only your own creative mind can make possible. Then at other times they can become reflections of your life. A revisitation to your childhood recreating the world that was set for you in your years of growing up._

Minutes seemed like hours to the secretary as he paced the floor endlessly. There had been no response to either of the men lying on the bed. Neither of them showed any sighs of movement and Hisoka had no indications of change in his partners psychic connection to him.

"What could possibly be going on? You say that you have not had any type of disturbance whatsoever?"

"Not a single glitch since he went under, but I…I can feel him so he is not in any harm as far as I know. Tsuzuki is just in suspended animation." It was becoming unnerving in the secretary's eyes.

"It has been almost four hours."

_What was happening? _

Tatsumi bit at his lip trying to hold in any anxiety that might have shown. To look weak would mean that he was showing his colleagues bad leadership on his part and most of the time he was very good at hiding his emotion and keeping it at bay. Tatsumi was a very composed, stern man. It was all part of his job having taken the role as a leader to begin with, he practically ran JuOhCho.

Making good judgment meant always being in control of your own selfish emotions, something that at times he regrets in his earlier life with Tsuzuki. He had let his emotions slip when he had told Tsuzuki that he no longer wanted him as his partner. All because he could not handle the emotional baggage Tsuzuki had carried on his shoulder and now he was teetering on the edge of a complete breakdown again.

The one man to notice was the last person he wanted to see him weak. Tatsumi could barely compose his anger when the swordsman told him that Tsuzuki might just have feelings for Muraki. He had to walk away something he would have never done especially in a confrontation of his own integrity. Oriya had read him like an open book. Tatsumi never made it obvious to his co-workers on his feelings regarding Tsuzuki at least not of a sexual nature. It was always displayed more along the lines of a comforting parent then a man wanting to give more then a simple hug, pat on the back or encouraging words. It was kind of ironic if you thought about it. Two men in love with their friend and nether of them having the guts to make it known or even allow it to be acknowledged. Though something told Tatsumi that Oriya had hinted his feelings towards Muraki before, but he would not have been surprised to see the doctor not even concede it for what it was worth. In fact, he second guessed the whole idea of Oriya still hiding his feelings from his best friend, he was so opened to tell him about it after all. But maybe that was because the man had held it in for so long that what better person to tell it to then a complete stranger and possible enemy.

Quickly Tatsumi regained his self composure as he reminded himself that he had a job to do and that was to find out what this demon was capable of and how to disdain it.

"Watari have you found anything else about this demon Humatri?"

Watari continued to type at the computer only glancing at the secretary.

"Nothing, his characters are amazingly extensive but it says nothing of any past possessions or summoning for that matter. This demon has quite literally kept to himself or just was waiting for the right host to conquer."

"But why would he pick Muraki as his chosen host?" The secretary questioned.

"Perhaps it is the nature of the beast. We all know that Muraki certainly is not running for Kindest Man of the Year. Perhaps he had planned to have the demon posses him to gain more power."

Oriya rose from his chair slapping the palms of his hands against the wall in anger. It made him feel as if his presence here was irrelevant towards the fact that his best friend and secret love interest was unconscious and about to be possessed by a demon. He certainly didn't appreciate these people regardless of inviting them into his home continue to degrade his friend. They all looked over to him with shock.

"That is just plain ridiculous! His only crime was revenge and sorrow, never power. And even if the demon could insist on helping him with his revenge, Muraki is a man who likes to be in control of his own situations and allowing a lowlife demon to spawn within his own body is far removed from the arrogant bastards standards! Besides I already told you people that Muraki had been avoiding this demon for years!"

"Well what do you suggest then?" The secretary interjected.

Oriya just stood there pressing his palm harder against the wall making the knuckles completely white. It was all he could do at the time without lashing out anymore on the shinigami's. He keep reminding himself that he was the one that had called on them to help and if it was not for that damned freak on the bed Muraki might have all ready been possessed.. But what good was it going to do now. Muraki was dying regardless . Even if that freak were to save Muraki from the demon, Muraki's physical form was in severe jeopardy, either way Oryia was going to lose him. It was a catch twenty two your either damned if you do or your damned if you don't. Oriya sighed at the though and slid back down in his chair.

" That demon wants something from Muraki . I don't know what but apparently something important to have been waiting so long for the opportunity to finally posses him. You did say that you found no recollection of the demon having possessed anyone before?"

Watari looked over toward Oriya noticing his face grim. Suddenly he felt regretful for what he had said about Muraki it really did have an effect on the swordsman. Not only that but he could only imagine what Oriya was going through realizing his best friend is on the verge of death, it must be taking a lot out of him. The man was exhausted. The scientist could tell Oriya had not been sleeping for some days now. Black circles could clearly be seen underneath his eyes. But that expression on his face was not only from fatigue but the swordsman was worried about his friend. That same expression that Tsuzuki had giving towards the doctor's prone body as he heard Oriya say that Muraki was dying.

Watari quickly looked away tapping more at the keys looking for the answer to Oriya's question. Finally after a few taps on the back button a familiar screen came up.

"Yes, in fact in summoning him you would have to go to quit the extensive ritual to even invoke him, it's practically suicide. That is why with these kind of demons they come to you instead possessing the body in the form of a poltergeist, but these are the weaker of this demon, like pawns in a chest set. Humatri is a lord, the creator."

"But of all things why would it want Muraki?"

"I don't know. I can't seem to find a valid reason as to why ?"

"Perhaps he is just using Muraki as bait for something bigger."

Watari couldn't feel any more guilty then he was feelings right now. Not only did he hit a soft spot on the swordsman but he was also lying to Tatsumi. He bit his lip. Not to long ago him and Hisoka had a very similar discussion. He wanted to tell Tatsumi what Hisoka had said, but he already knew what Tatsumi would do and he didn't want to risk Tsuzuki's life on account of his paranoia. Plus he had made a promise with Hisoka that as long as nothing weird was going to happen he would keep quite just until Hisoka could find a way to communicate with his partner. And then perhaps have Tsuzuki break the contact himself. It was the safest way without harming him or giving Tsuzuki and Muraki permanent brain damage.

"Why didn't we just kill Muraki?" Hisoka broke through the silence. Carelessly he looked over toward the bed. "It would have made things more easy don't you think?" he looked over at Tatsumi but it was Watari who responded

"Because it is in every human's right to have a fair trial, no matter how sadistic and evil they may be. It is our job as shinigamis to bring in the souls of those in which have caused a crack in the line of extinction."

The scientist said casually glancing up at Oriya. The swordsman gave him a slight smile as to say thank you for defending him.

"It would be injustice to kill a man when they are not aware of it themselves; it is more of a traditional honor to face your enemy before combat." Oryia continued.

"It didn't occur to me that Muraki seen it that way."

The secretary refused to believe Muraki was innocent in all this. Despite the emotional atmosphere lingering within the room.

"He was a man lost in his own hatred of betrayal. Don't think for a second that Muraki was always this way. He too was a man with principle, but a person can only take so much before the darkness engulfs their very soul." Oriya retorted.

Tatsumi was about to say something in his defense, but then a faint knock is heard from the rice paper door. Oriya walks over opening it half way as one of his geisha softly whisper.

"Sir, you have a visitor here to see you."

"Tell them I am busy," he proceeds to close the door but she puts her finger up to stop it.

"I have but she refused to leave. She only wishes to have an audience with you. I think you better."

She gives him a look that if he did not go to see this person that they would cause great havoc throughout the establishment without a hint of care.. Besides that he knew that his geisha's would never interrupt him unless it was of an extreme urgency.

"Excuse me, gentlemen."

Oriya walks up to the front expecting to see some government officials wife that probably found out about the place on accident and came to confront him about it, it has happened before in the past. It took much convincing and money to keep her quit. Well it was either that or the option of Muraki, of course. But what he discovered was far worse than that.

"Where is he, Oriya? "

"Ukyou..."

* * *

**Next** : Petals In Blood Part: 2 

_Why are dolls so fragile._

_They are easily broken and so hard to put back together._

_They never come out looking the same either._

_Completely flawed._

_There will always be cracks that can never be mended._

_Cracks that would make it ugly and frowned upon when displayed._

_No one would want it then_

_It would become lonely and in need of love, desperate to be wanted_

_It would be then in it's most shattered form that I would hold it...care for it_

_Because only then I would be able to have it truly to myself._

_

* * *

_

Do not own the orginal characters protrayed in this fiction piece.


	14. Chapter 8 Petals in Blood : 2

Sorry this took so long to get this out and that it seems so inadequate. I had another part to this but I decided to cut it short since I have not even finished it yet. I wanted to get something out to let everyone know I have not abandoned my stories. There is just so much I am doing in RL that I have not had the time. So here it is the next half chapter of Skeletons in the Closet.

**Petals in Blood**

**Part Two**

_A Brief cliffhanger inside Muraki mind._

* * *

_Sometimes doors are not meant to be opened, while others need to be in order to get to where it is you are going. But it is not whether you get in or out but what you see in that room once the door is open that can change the perception of the mind in an insistent .Maybe the best way to solve this is to just close your eyes and hope for the best?_

Tsuzuki was back in the hall of doors with the child like guide. The air within the room seemed slightly colder then before as it prickled the shinigami's skin . Though it didn't seem to bother the young guide much as he hummed and paced the long corridor like an over exuberated child at a candy store. He turned around to look at the shinigami displaying a big grin on his face

"I am glad you are still with me Tsuzuki-san.'

It was strange to hear the guide call him by a proper title and not by Suzu or Tsuzuki as he was called at the beginning of their journey. Tsuzuki began to notice this change in his name throughout there adventure together. At first the boy had called him Suzu then it was Tsuzuki now he became addressed as Tsuzuki-san. It was strange but perhaps the youth was growing along with his past memories in a way of perceiving Tsuzuki through the years of his life.

"I am too.."

"No I don't think you are." The youth butted in with a rather amused grin on his face. " You're just curious about me. You want to know so much and yet even the answers that lye behind these doors could never give you the full attention of me and your curiosity, I believe it goes beyond just my past."

Tsuzuki froze, the boy was just playing tricks with his mind; there was nothing else he wanted from Muraki but the truth. It was the reason he did this to begin with, right?. His mind traced back to when he seen Muraki laying on the bed and how Oriya had stated that the man was dying. His heart sank at those words, but he would do that for anyone Muraki was no more an exception .

"I am only here to find out why this demon has such an interest in you. There is no hidden meaning within that."

The guide just smiled knowingly and turned his back on the shinigami." Well then lets find out more shall we." he skipped down the hall to a white door. The guide was getting ready to open it but stopped quick in his tracks. Something about that door had frightened him and he backed away as those small delicate hands started shaking uncontrollable.

"What's wrong ?" Tsuzuki quickly went over to him.

"I… I don't want to go in there." The youth said in a trembling voice.

Tsuzuki didn't know what had the guide so afraid to enter the next room but he knew that it was enough to make the boy back away from it and right into him as if he were to save him from the fear of whatever was to come out from within that door. The shinigami turned the youth around and kneeled to his level a concerned look etched his features as he tried to console the boys fear.

" We have to go in here don't we? In order to get to the next part right; this is the next scene of your life?"

"I…. I don't want to Tsuzuki-san." The guide shook his tiny head in protest.

"How about if I go in first then. Will you feel better about that?" There was a serene caring look in Tsuzuki's eyes as he said this to the youth. A look meant of compassion and understanding in the fear and vulnerability he had seen in those young silver eyes, a part that Tsuzuki would never see in the true Muraki.

It took a moment for the youth to consider this option and Tsuzuki waited patiently for a response. "You……you'll protect me right you'll save me from the darkness?" He looked seriously into those purple eyes.

"What darkness Mur…Kazutaka? What are you talking about?" The child looks away from Tsuzuki directing his attention beyond the shinigami's left shoulder. There was utter fright in his eyes and he said in a low whisper, almost as if he was trying to keep from saying it too loud in fear that something might horribly happen if spoken above too high an octave. "....my darkness."

Tsuzuki was not sure of how to answer this and just grabbed onto the youths hand in reassurance."I promise I'll protect you." They couldn't stop now Tsuzuki was so close to finding out about Muraki. Whatever it was behind this door they would have no choice but to go forward. "Lets go inside, we will face it together you and I." The youth only pulled back slight in hesitation before allowing Tsuzuki to lead the way.".....ok….. " he said squeezing the hand in his tightly as they proceeded to slowly open the door.

* * *

**NEXT:** Petals in blood part: 3

_Sometimes when you enter a door you are not quite prepared at what you are about to see and sometimes what you see might change everything in how you perceive things now and forever. But one thing you can not do is change the past, that which is a constant reminder of what we have become and why._


End file.
